How smart is it to let kids play with lead?

How smart is it to let kids play with lead? In the United States, lead was once a main component of paint, but it was banned after health authorities found that children in old houses or apartments with peeling paint often put the paint chips in their mouths and suffered severe toxic effects. By the 1990s, the known consequences of exposure to this heaviest of all the metals included disorders of the brain, central nervous system, kidneys, and blood cells. Ingestion of lead, whether by breathing or swallowing, could lead to attention deficit disorders, behavioral problems, lowered IQs, comas, and even death. In 1991, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services called lead poisoning the "number one environmental threat to the children of the United States," and noted that "children may have higher exposure since they are more likely to get lead dust on their hands...." In 2001, the American Medical Association released a study, based on data from 3,111 counties, showing a link between lead levels in the air and murder rates.

Vigilance about lead is not yet universal, however. In Bangladesh, a young boy like this does not suffer from lead poisoning through of inadvertent contact in play, but through directed labor. His job is to recycle old batteries, and the normal residue of his work is a pastiche of elemental lead.