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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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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.

Could My Child Have Lead Poisoning?

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Monday, August 20, 2012   

INDIANAPOLIS - It turns out it takes only half as much lead ingestion to cause problems for children as previously thought, so more Indiana children could be at risk of lead poisoning and the problems which can ensue.

The CDC recently cut in half the level of lead exposure deemed to be a health risk. In the meantime, Congress allocated only $2 million for lead-poisoning prevention this year, compared to $29 million the year before. That leaves very few staff members to get the word out.

A toxicologist, Dr. Jennifer Lowry, says it also means 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."

Dr. 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 kids who are within the new guidelines.

Sources of lead include toys, children's jewelry, paint chips from old houses, and sometimes even the soil around houses. Hoosier parents with concerns about lead can call the Indiana Family Helpline at 1-800-433-0746.

Dr. Lowry says parents need to get rid of old paint chips in houses built before 1978, and she says dusting the floors and toys in such houses is important. She adds that houses with old paint on the outside can make the nearby soil hazardous as play areas or for planting vegetables.

"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 has also been contaminated from the old leaded gasoline. This can happen in houses near highways or around old factory sites. And doctors in Boston just last month discovered lead poisoning in a child that came from a folk remedy for the eyes. The parents had brought it from Nigeria.

Dr. Lowry says parents can't just call up the health department and ask them to test their soil or their house. 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 blood-lead level."

The CDC says that all houses built before 1978 probably contain some lead. When the paint deteriorates and gets into the dust it causes problems. It says that more than 20 million houses have elevated levels of lead contamination in house dust.

Lowry says doctors and parents need to be more diligent about testing.

More information is at www.cdc.gov and at tinyurl.com/8ov84mg.




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