Ayden can’t speak. Lead poisoning is probably to blame.

Most children suffer milder effects, but their brains aren’t unscathed

Dre Jones remembers watching his wife cry in the passenger seat of his GMC Envoy as they drove their 4-year-old son the 70 miles from their Dyersburg home to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.

He can still see the inside of the emergency department and smell the alcohol swab the nurse used to prepare his son’s hand for an IV.

“I had to hold him to keep him still while they were doing it because he was fighting and crying,” Jones said.

Jones’ son, Ayden, was diagnosed with severe lead poisoning in August 2019. The current federal standard for concern is 3.5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of a child’s blood. Ayden’s blood level measured 72 micrograms per deciliter.

Now 8, Ayden doesn’t talk. At school, he flips desks when frustrated and doesn’t play with other kids. Lead seems to have swung his brain’s development far off the typical course.

Hundreds of Memphis-area kids are diagnosed with lead poisoning each year, according to state data. While almost all suffer much milder effects than Ayden, their brains aren’t unscathed. Kids exposed to lead perform worse in school and are somewhat more likely to encounter learning disabilities and major mental health issues.

While Ayden’s case is far from the norm, it is a clear picture of the ways lead threatens West Tennessee’s children.