WHO used October 15, ahead of International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, to call for faster elimination of lead exposure. It estimates that lead contributes to more than 3.5 million deaths globally each year and affects hundreds of millions of children. Sources include paint, cookware, cosmetics, spices, informal recycling and industrial contamination. Developing brains and nervous systems are especially vulnerable, no safe exposure level is known and many cases remain hidden because early symptoms are not obvious. Member States have asked WHO to prepare a Global Action Plan on Lead Mitigation for the 2027 World Health Assembly, alongside a PREVENT technical package for source identification, intervention, enforcement and monitoring. In WHO's latest assessment, fewer than half of countries had confirmed legally binding controls on lead paint.