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government-sanctioned team has found that children in one village in Bogor, West Java, have been suffering from chronic lead poisoning.

The Committee for the Leaded Gasoline Phase-out found that children in Cinangka Village, Bogor, have an average lead level of 32.62 micrograms per deciliter of blood, exceeding the safe level of 10 micrograms per liter set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Local chairman of the committee Ahmad Safrudin attributed the high lead-to-blood level to a battery recycling plant set up in the vicinity of the village.

“Cinangka Village has been the center of the home industry specializing in battery recycling, which has been operational since the early 1980s,” Safrudin said.

In the village alone, there are more than 40 battery recycling plants, some of which were shut down due to the hazards they posed on the environment.

The committee conducted a field test on elementary school students in April by taking blood samples from 40 children in Cinangka Village.

Laboratory tests showed that the highest level of lead was found in the body of a 7-year-old, at 60 micrograms per deciliter.

The lowest level was found in the blood of a 6-year-old boy at 16.2 micrograms per deciliter.

Lead affects a number of body processes, damaging organs and tissues including the heart , bones , intestines , kidneys , and reproductive and nervous systems. People can be exposed to lead through contaminated air, water, soil, food and consumer products.

The committee also found in its field research that soil in Cinangka Village also contained a high level of lead, which reaches more than 100,000 parts per million (ppm), exceeding the maximum standard set by the WHO at only 400 ppm.

“There should be a clean-up effort but it will be very costly,” Saifuddin said.

The committee said it would begin a clean-up effort beginning with local school grounds.

Locals have said that they were concerned about the high lead levels. A teacher of Cinangka elementary school, Sunarsih said she dreaded the impact of the poisoning.

“We expect the Bogor administration to provide medication for our children,” she said.

Some children suffering from lead poisoning performed poorly in class.

“One of my students, Damar Sidik, a second grader, seems disoriented during class,” she said.

The response from the Bogor City Administration has been reported as disappointing. An official with the Bogor Health Department Eulis Wulantari said her office would start a cleanup drive and reactivate the School Health Unit.