Absorbed lead is carried through the blood stream and is stored in various organs and tissues. This may lead to coma and death. Occupational exposures of this magnitude are rare. Chronic overexposure to lead may damage your blood-forming, nervous, urinary and reproductive systems. Overexposure to lead can cause kidney disease or anemia.
Lead adversely affects the reproductive systems of both men and women.
In men, lead exposure may cause decreased sex drive, impotence and sterility. In women, it can cause decreased fertility and abnormal menstrual cycles. Lead can also harm a developing fetus causing birth defects, mental retardation, miscarriages and stillbirths. Symptoms of exposure to lead include loss of appetite, metallic taste in the mouth, anxiety, constipation, nausea, pallor, excessive tiredness, weakness, insomnia, headache, nervous irritability, muscle and joint pain or soreness, fine tremors, numbness, dizziness, hyperactivity and severe abdominal pain. Cadmium Cadmium can be inhaled or ingested.