Invisible danger

Editor's note: In this weekly feature China Daily gives voice to Asia and its people. The stories presented come mainly from the Asia News Network (ANN), of which China Daily is among its 20 leading titles.

There may be no black smoke rising from a furnace, no warning sign beside a road, and no visible mark on the toy a child carries home. In some parts of Bangladesh, however, the soil beneath homes and farmland may carry the residue of years of lead exposure. Near abandoned lead-acid battery recycling sites, lead can remain in the environment long after the furnaces have gone quiet, finding its way into dust, soil, food, and eventually the human body.

A 2026 study published in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Public Health looked at communities living near two abandoned battery recycling facilities in the town of Mirzapur following a soil remediation intervention. Residents reported improvements in crops, livestock, and children's well-being after the contaminated soil was removed. But the study also found continuing concerns over how contaminated soil was handled and whether pollution could return.

This is what makes the lead problem so difficult to confront. The contamination can be invisible, while the activities responsible for it are woven into everyday economic life.

Batteries keep rickshaws and other three-wheelers moving and provide backup power. Paint covers walls. Spices sit in kitchens. Toys are handled by children. The risk is not always confined to a factory or a recycling yard.

The Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2025, conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics with support from UNICEF, tested blood lead levels among children aged 12 to 59 months and pregnant women. It found elevated blood lead levels in 38.34 percent of young children and 7.54 percent of pregnant women, using 5 micro-grams per deciliter as the threshold.

According to Priscilla Wobil, health specialist at UNICEF Bangladesh, the findings should be understood not merely as a statistic but as evidence of concentrated exposure in particular environments.

According to Wobil, Dhaka's density and concentration of industrial and commercial activity provide several possible pathways for exposure. Children may come in contact with industrial waste and emissions, informal battery recycling, contaminated dust and soil, food and consumer products, and possibly contaminated water.