The United States is doing a pitiful job of treating lead poisoning in children. We’ve spent decades talking about cleaning up lead but apparently we forgot that we also needed to worry about its impact on our kids. And a new report shows that the numbers are actually much worse than we thought.
Researchers at the Public Health Institute reported Thursday in the journal Pediatrics that the overall number of children with elevated blood lead levels as of 1999-2000 in the US was 1.2 million, or double what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reported. (The number is likely even higher now, since testing rates have only declined since 2000.) These kids who are never tested or reported to the CDC also aren’t receiving treatment.
Currently, testing children for lead isn’t required by law and in 11 states (including Arizona and Florida), 80 percent of children were not tested by pediatricians or health departments. This means that doctors miss children that are exposed to lead poisoning and they don’t get treatment. Lead paint was banned in the late 1970s and as a result the percentage of children who blood lead levels has declined. However, researchers have learned in recent years that no level of lead in the blood is safe for children.
Studies have even shown lead concentration in the blood as low as 2 micrograms per deciliter of blood (μg/dL) can lower IQ in children. And once children have blood lead levels of 5 μg/dL and above (what’s now considered lead poisoning), they can suffer severe neurological damage in the form of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2oUj7wx
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