{"id":24795,"date":"2019-06-26T21:57:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T21:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2019\/06\/lead-poisoning-continues-to-affect-children-across-the-houston-area\/"},"modified":"2019-08-28T16:10:45","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T16:10:45","slug":"lead-poisoning-continues-to-affect-children-across-the-houston-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2019\/06\/lead-poisoning-continues-to-affect-children-across-the-houston-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead poisoning continues to affect children across the Houston area"},"content":{"rendered":"
Two-year-old Ja-Kobi Hicks clutched his mother\u2019s arm as Yashira Padilla, a medical assistant at the\u00a0WIC clinic<\/a> in Baytown, Texas, pricked his finger during a routine checkup. After filling a tiny vial with the toddler\u2019s blood, she placed the sample in a machine to test for elevated lead levels. Within minutes, the results were negative, and one more child was screened and cleared of an issue that can cause lifelong, debilitating health challenges.<\/p>\n The screening was part of the new\u00a0Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program<\/a>, funded by the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> (CDC) and launched last year by\u00a0Harris County Public Health<\/a> (HCPH). The initiative aims to reduce lead exposure and poisoning in the Greater Houston area through education and intervention.<\/p>\n Lead poisoning, despite common misconceptions, persists. In 2016, 1,016 children in Harris County tested positive for elevated lead levels, according to the\u00a0latest data available<\/a> from the\u00a0Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS)<\/a>. In addition, only about one in five children are screened by age five, so the number impacted is likely higher, said HCPH spokesperson India Ogazi. The agency recommends lead testing by a medical provider at least once for all children six and younger.<\/p>\n Lead exposure occurs when a child swallows or inhales lead. Most often, this comes in the form of lead-based paint\u2014which was banned for residential use in 1978, but still exists in many of the Houston area\u2019s older homes. Lead is also found in imported toys, spices, jewelry, pottery and cosmetics, and is still used in manufacturing, so parents who work on industrial sites are at greater risk of bringing lead dust into their homes.<\/p>\n Nathalie Cardona, MPH, the HCPH program\u2019s team lead, said that lead exposure can happen if a child places a dust-exposed toy in his or her mouth.<\/p>\n \u201cOur advice to parents is to take off those clothes before they come into the home, but the single most important thing parents can do is to watch what [children] put in their mouths,\u201d Cardona said. \u201cThat\u2019s the main source of lead. Wash their hands, wash their toys, and be aware of what they\u2019re putting into their mouths.\u201d<\/p>\n Individuals who live in houses built before 1978 should also wet-mop their floors, wipe down surfaces with a wet cloth and seal any cracks, Ogazi added. For families who meet certain criteria, HCPH offers a\u00a0lead abatement program<\/a> which provides home-based lead removal services.<\/p>\n Lead exposure is not immediately noticeable, which is why early screening is so important. Symptoms, which generally emerge later in life, include brain development delays, speech and language problems, slowed growth and damage to the nervous system and\/or kidneys. Lead can also\u00a0affect education outcomes<\/a> and has even been associated with\u00a0increased crime<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also costly. A new\u00a0web-based tool<\/a>, developed through a collaboration between the nonprofit research and consulting organization\u00a0Altarum<\/a> and the\u00a0Robert Wood Johnson Foundation<\/a>, calculated the cost of lead exposure and estimated that Texas bears an $8.1 billion burden.<\/p>\n