EB156(32)

Having considered the report by the Director‑General;

Recalling the commitments of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development to phase out lead in lead-based paints and in other sources of human exposure; to work to prevent children's exposure to lead in particular; and to strengthen monitoring, surveillance and treatment efforts; 3

Recognizing that preventing and mitigating the health impacts caused by all sources of lead exposure aligns with WHO's Fourteenth General Programme of Work, 2025–2028, which emphasizes addressing health determinants and the root causes of ill health, including climate change and environmental degradation;

Recognizing also WHO's Chemicals road map, 4 approved at the Seventieth World Health Assembly to help achieve the 2020 (“and beyond”) goals of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, 5 to enhance the global health sector's leadership role in the health-related components of exposure to harmful chemicals, including lead, and its important supporting role in multisectoral cooperation in the sound management of chemicals, including lead as one of the 10 chemicals of major public health concern;  6

Welcoming that the 2023 Global Framework on Chemicals – for a Planet Free of Harm from Chemicals and Waste 7 recognizes the health sector's critical role and unique expertise to contribute to the sound management of chemicals and waste and to the promotion of health and well-being, 8 and recalling also resolution WHA76.17 (2023) on the impact of chemicals, waste and pollution on human health, which highlighted the critical importance of the work of WHO and the health sector in global chemicals management, particularly in relation to lead and support of the negotiations towards the 2023 Global Framework on Chemicals;

Recognizing the need to update WHO's Chemicals road map to enhance the engagement of the health sector in relation to the 2023 Global Framework on Chemicals, in particular the importance of health protection strategies focusing on specific chemicals of concern, including lead, and addressing the needs of individuals at risk of exposure, including those in vulnerable situations, and noting that the Director-General is drafting a related report to address the needed updates;

Recalling the growing political commitment to address exposure to lead including the G20 Call to Action on Strengthening Drinking-water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services, which highlights the role of international technical cooperation to combat water pollution, including from lead;

Recognizing ongoing collaboration such as the new global public–private Partnership for a Lead-free Future (launched on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in September 2024) which is dedicated to tackling lead exposure in low- and middle‑income countries and to ending childhood lead poisoning by 2040;

Recognizing also that lead is a heavy metal with no known safe blood lead concentrations and that some studies have estimated that lead accounted for nearly half of the two million lives lost owing to chemical exposure in 2019 9 with an estimated 1.5 million annual lead‑associated deaths as of 2021 (primarily due to cardiovascular effects); 10

Expressing concern that young children are particularly vulnerable to the health effects from exposure to lead, with an estimated one in every three children globally with blood lead levels that raise significant concern for a high risk of poor developmental outcomes, learning and behavioural difficulties, lower educational attainment, lower incomes and ultimately premature mortality, 11 and noting that 99% of these children live in low- and middle‑income countries; 12 , 13

Noting that chronic exposure of adults to even low levels of lead has deleterious health effects and is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease; 14 that pregnant women exposed to lead are at greater risk of pregnancy complications, miscarriages, fetal development disorders, lower child birth weight, preterm births and stillbirths; 15 and that older people exposed to low levels of lead may have increased risk of high blood pressure, cognitive impairments and psychiatric symptoms, as well as dementia; 16

Noting also the global initiative launched by a consortium of governments, manufacturers and civil society partners at the United Nations 2023 Water Conference to achieve lead-free drinking-water 17 and acknowledging the continuing efforts of WHO to address the serious health impacts of lead through outreach and engagement, as well as the significant progress made through the UNEP Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles, which eradicated all automotive leaded petrol from world markets, 18 and through the WHO/ UNEP Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint, 19 with more than 100 partners seeking to prevent children's exposure to lead paint (and minimize occupational exposure);

Concerned that neglecting the adverse health impacts of lead exposure could undermine the efforts of Member States and the Secretariat to improve health and well-being and reduce health inequalities and inequities globally;

Underscoring the importance of paying particular attention to those disproportionately impacted by lead exposure, especially children, women of reproductive age, people in low-income communities and people living in developing countries;

Acknowledging that multisectoral cooperation, as recognized in WHO's Chemicals road map, can drive progress on chemical safety and relies on evidence-based health interventions to reduce the lifelong health impacts of lead exposure, especially on children;

Emphasizing that this resolution presents a timely additional opportunity for the global health community to leverage its convening power to advocate for improving health outcomes by increasing action and commitment from the sectors continuing the use of lead in construction materials, including in paint, pipes and pipe fittings, but also in toys, spices, cosmetics and other consumer goods, and from industrial sources that contribute to lead contamination including the unsafe production, disposal and recycling of lead acid batteries,