CGD Lead Poisoning Update
Posts
CGD Lead Poisoning Bi-weekly Update, July 10

CGD Lead Poisoning Bi-weekly Update, July 10

Theo Mitchell & Rachel Bonnifield
July 10, 2026

Dear Colleagues,

Sharing here CGD’s bi-weekly update on lead poisoning publications, events, job opportunities, and funding announcements.

We welcome submissions for future newsletters at this link. New subscribers can sign up at this link, and existing subscribers can remove themselves from future updates via the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. We will also invite the new subscribers to join our monthly check-in call.

With best wishes,

Rachel Bonnifield
Senior Fellow
Center for Global Development

New Publications and Resources

The deadly threat affecting millions — and how to prevent it. Drew McCarter. TED. Pure Earth’s excellent TED Talk is out! The headline: Lead kills more people than all active wars, natural disasters, road accidents, HIV, and malaria combined. And solving the problem is not rocket science.
Barrier to Import Batteries and Lead Poisoning in Bangladesh. Amrita Kundu, Moogdho Mahzab, and Erica Plambeck. SSRN. The authors study Bangladesh’s 2015 battery import barriers, which expanded domestic lead acid battery (LAB) manufacturing and recycling. After the policy change, women living within 5 km of a LAB site had 4-5 additional terminated pregnancies per 100 pregnancies compared to women living farther away (on a pre-policy baseline of about 16 per 100).
Revealed: Britain’s lead poisoning legacy could still be affecting children. Niamh O Regan and Aveek Bhattacharya. New Statesman. Featuring a map by Lee Crawfurd estimating where the children live, at the parliamentary constituency level, so we can identify which MPs and parties represent the families most likely to be affected.
Justice for Kabwe campaign update. ACTSA. Kabwe’s lead poisoning legacy is receiving renewed attention, with a House of Lords debate on UK responsibility for colonial mining legacies, coordinated protests in Kabwe and London around Anglo American’s April AGM, and an appeal before South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal on whether the class action can proceed. Judgment is still awaited; recent coverage includes France24 and ZDF, and ACTSA’s Life in the World’s Most Polluted Town report remains useful background.
Metal Content of Consumer Products Tested by the NYC Health Department. The department tests consumer products collected during lead‑poisoning investigations and store surveys for lead. The dataset was recently updated to include 2025 data.

Job Opportunities

The Partnership for Battery Action (Pb Action) is hiring a Research & Methods Lead to support the development and implementation of the Battery Index — a scalable methodology and standard for assessing the safety of used lead-acid battery recyclers in low- and middle-income countries.

Other Announcements

Call for applications: 2026 Ethiopia Journalist Training on Lead Poisoning Prevention and Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies and Vital Strategies. Journalists, media professionals, and content creators covering environment and health in Ethiopia can apply for a residential training in Bishoftu on September 1-3, with travel, hotel, and per diem covered. Applications are due July 20; questions can be sent to [email protected].