Galveston County Daily News, Oct. 28, 2007 By the time they're 1 year old, children can have ingested enough lead to develop behavioral problems, attention disorders, difficulty learning, hearing impairment and a higher probability of criminal activity in later life. Dr. Wayne Snodgrass, a pharmacology professor at UTMB and a member of the National Committee on Lead Poisoning and Prevention, said a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 showed children with blood lead levels between 1 and 10 micrograms could lose as many as 7.4 IQ points.