Air-borne lead is lead that is suspended in the air and moves with the wind. This lead can travel long distances and contaminate large areas. The lead settles out and mixes with soil and dust. People are exposed to the lead when they breathe or come in contact with the lead dust. The risk of lead poisoning is normally higher for people living near a source of air-borne lead. This suspended lead comes from a number of sources, such as metal smelting, battery manufacturing, other factories that use lead, and automobile exhaust. The phase out of leaded gasoline has greatly reduced the amount of lead from automobiles, however, many other sources exist and much of the lead from automobile exhaust is still in the environment.

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