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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

New Guidelines for Lead Poisoning in Children

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Wednesday, August 8, 2012   

SALT LAKE CITY - More Utah children could be at risk from lead poisoning.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently cut in half the level of exposure deemed to be a health risk. Meanwhile, Congress allocated only $2 million for lead-poisoning prevention this year, compared with $29 million the year before.

That leaves very few staff members to get the word out about the change. It also means, says toxicologist Dr. Jennifer Lowry, that it's now up to parents and pediatricians to become more proactive.

"The CDC recommends that lead testing occur at the age of one year and at two years and, actually, annually up until the age of six years."

Lowry suggests that doctors go to the CDC website and make themselves aware of the new guidelines. She also recommends that parents talk to their pediatricians about testing. New studies have found attention problems and reduced IQ in children who are within the new guidelines.

Sources of lead include toys, children's jewelry, paint chips from old homes and sometimes even the soil around homes.

Parents need to get rid of older paint in homes built before 1978, Lowry says, adding that dusting the floors and toys in such homes is important. Homes with old exterior paint can make the nearby soil hazardous as play areas or for planting vegetables, she says.

"If there's peeling paint chips out in the soil from the home, it gets into the soil and the lead can get there. Usually, it concentrates around the first feet around the home."

Some soil also has been contaminated from the old leaded gasoline. That can happen in homes near highways or around old mine, mill and factory sites. Parents can't just call up the health department and ask them to test their soil or their home, Lowry says. The children need to be tested first.

"They cannot come out to the home and assess your home for lead hazards unless there is a child that has an elevated lead blood level."

All homes built before 1978 probably contain some lead, according to the CDC. More than 20 million homes have elevated levels of lead contamination in house dust, the CDC says. Lowry says doctors and parents need to be more diligent about testing.

More information is online at cdc.gov/nceh/lead.


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