The “silent epidemic” of lead addiction in children in the United States continues

The vast majority of children in the United States still had blood lead in the last few years, despite decades of policies controlling lead in the environment. Certain groups can be particularly vulnerable.

Quest Diagnostics data revealed that 50.5% of more than 1 million infants tested nationwide have detectable blood lead levels (BLL; ≥1.0 μg / dL). In the four states of Nebraska, Missouri, Michigan and Iowa, more than 75% of children had detectable BLLs, said Marissa Hauptmann, a doctor of medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, in collaboration with employees of a large lab service company. I reported.

“Any Detectable lead level Is abnormal Potentially harmful, Especially for toddlers. No safe exposure level to lead for children has been identified. ” JAMA Pediatrics..

In addition, 1.9% of the children in this study (all under 6 years of age) showed an increase in BLL above 5.0 μg / dL.

“The silence epidemic of lead poisoning continues,” wrote Philip Landrigan, MD, and David Bellinger, Harvard Medical, University of Boston. Corresponding editorial..

In the 1980s, almost 90% of children had elevated BLL Higher than 10 μg / dL. The number has dropped significantly due to the ban on new lead paints and piping. “[l]ead is still widespread in the US environment, especially in paints, water pipes and plumbing equipment. “

President Byden recently proposed Remove all lead pipes in the US In him $ 2 trillion infrastructure plan..

“But this proposed action needs to be complemented by an equally ambitious plan to remove lead paint from all households across the country. Lead-based paints, and produce as lead paint wears. Lead-containing dust remains the leading cause of lead exposure in children and accounts for the overwhelming majority of detectable and elevated blood lead levels in children in the United States. “

Hauptmann’s group reported that higher BLL correlates with poverty, race, and housing. Past research.. for example:

• 60.2% of children living below the poverty line had a detectable BLL, compared to 38.8% of children not living in poverty
• 57.6% of black children had a detectable BLL, compared to 48.7% of white children
• 57.2% of children who lived in pre-1950s homes had a detectable BLL, compared to 42.6% of children who lived in new homes

“These findings confirm that there is still a long way to go to end childhood lead poisoning in the United States,” Randrigan and Bellinger wrote. “They reaffirm the existence of unacceptable disparities in racial, ethnic, income, and postal code exposure of children to lead-many of them are the cruelty of decades of structural racial discrimination. Heritage-The most severely applicable heritage to children and families. Our society with the fewest resources. “

“The first step is to hold the people who caused the turmoil accountable. I think every state should take some legal action to get it. [lead companies] To wipe out the turmoil they created. “

2019, A major supplier of lead paints had to pay California $ 305 million To clean up the damage caused by lead paint. Rosner, who testified in the case, said he hoped other states would follow in the footsteps of California.

“I’ve known for a century that poor children living in devastated homes are more likely to be addicted to lead. The tragedy is also a century of knowledge about their direct relationship to lead addiction. Regardless, researchers need to continually document this fact: race, class, poverty. “

“Americans should be ashamed to allow this tragedy to continue and occasionally nod to correct it,” he added.

The retrospective cross-sectional study used anonymized data from 1,141,441 children who underwent lead testing by Quest Diagnostics. The average age at the time of the cohort test was 2.3 years, and 51.5% of the children were boys.

The authors of the study acknowledged that there may have been a bias in selection as it did not include data from all major US testing companies.

They also noted that there are state-level variations in lead exposure testing laws and procedures. Only 10 states and DCs require universal exams for children aged 1 and 2. In fact, data for Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Arizona, Hawaii, Vermont, and Maine were not reported in the study as less than 500 children were tested in these states.