Preventing lead poisoning

The number one cause of childhood lead poisoning in Linn County is lead-based paint.

About 60 percent of Linn County's housing stock was built before 1978, the year lead-based paint was banned by the federal government for residential use. Children living in homes with lead paint that is chipping or otherwise in disrepair are more at risk for having an elevated blood lead level. Additionally, residents working around products containing lead may also be at risk for elevated blood lead levels.

Linn County Public Health has had a Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program since the 1970s. Although the lead poisoning rate for children under six years of age in Linn County has decreased through education, partnerships, and policy, it remains one of the highest in Iowa. Linn County Public Health has made it a goal to reduce the percentage of Linn County children with confirmed elevated blood lead screenings from 0.98 percent to less than 0.5 percent by 2020.

Lead is a neurotoxin that can affect nearly any organ in the body and at a very high level may even cause death. Lead poisoning is especially harmful to children under six years of age due to their developing brains and nervous system. Children who become lead poisoned even at low levels have shown decreased IQ, behavior problems and decreased academic achievement. Most children who are lead poisoned present no symptoms at all; only later exhibiting learning difficulties or behavioral problems. The cost of lead poisoning is especially high when health care costs, lower lifetime earnings, less tax revenue, special education costs, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and the direct costs of crime are considered.

The only way to know if you or your child has lead poisoning is through a simple blood test that can be taken at your doctor's office or area lab with a physician order, or by appointment at Linn County Public Health. Linn County Public Health monitors blood-lead data in Linn County and follows up when children have been identified as having an elevated blood lead level.

When a child with lead poisoning has been diagnosed, the level of lead in blood determines the next steps. These can include education, risk assessments, mitigation orders for property owners and follow-up.

The good news is lead poisoning is 100 percent preventable. The City of Cedar Rapids in partnership with Linn County Public Health recently was awarded a Lead Hazard Control Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grant will help identify and reduce lead hazards in target housing throughout Cedar Rapids and prevent childhood lead poisoning. This partnership provides training designed to teach people doing work in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities to work with lead based paint safety.

For more information on lead hazard control assistance, visit the Linn County Healthy Homes website www.lchh.org, or call (319) 892-6000 and ask for a healthy homes specialist.

' Pramod Dwivedi is health director of Linn County Public Health. Mark Taylor is senior manager of Environment, Safety and Health at Rockwell Collins and Linn County Board of Health member. Comments: (319) 892-6000; health@linncounty.org