Nigeria: Commitment needed on lead poisoning

High-level Nigerian government participation is needed at an upcoming international conference to make progress in ending a lead poisoning epidemic among children in Zamfara State, Human Rights Watch said. The international conference, in Abuja, the capital, on May 9 and 10, 2012, will include representatives from the World Health Organization, bilateral donor agencies and nongovernmental organizations. It will focus on the mass lead poisoning in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara, one of the worst such crises in modern history.