Half of Kids in U.S. Have Detectable Levels of Lead in Their Blood

Kids today were calved decades after lead poisoning became a major public wellness concern in the 1970s and 80s. But tranquilize, more than half of US kids less than six geezerhood old still have detectable blood lead levels (BLLs), according to a new study in JAMA Pediatrics. No amount of lead in our blood is considered normal, the authors note, and lead poisoning can be particularly harmful to ontogeny in younger kids.

Blood samples from over matchless million children from across the U.S. were tested for the study. Of those, 50.5% had perceptible levels of lead in their blood. Almost 2% of the population had BLLs over 5 μg/dL (micrograms per deciliter), the even considered elevated by the CDC. About half of one-hundredth had levels concluded 10 μg/dL. But as the authors and the CDC reiterate, there is no known "safe" level for chair in our blood, which can jumper cable to organic process issues in kids like learning problems and nervous system damage.

The results cut along geographic, group, and economic lines. In some states, over 70% of kids had detectable BLLs, including over 80% in Nebraska and Missouri River. In addition, these two states, along with Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, had the highest part of kids — 4.5% or more — with BLLs over 5.0 μg/dL.

Overall, zip codes with majority Black and Hispanic populations had significantly high percentages of kids with perceptible BLLs (57.6% and 56.0%, respectively) than majority-white zip codes (48.7%). Absolute majority-Melanize zip codes likewise had significantly high percentages of kids with levels higher than 5.0 μg/dL (2.5%) than majority-colourless zip codes (2.0%), with bulk-Hispanic zip codes having the last percentage (1.1%).

Exposure also related to with poverty — while less than 40% of kids in the richest zip codes had detectable BLLs, ended 60% of kids in the poorest nix codes had detectable BLLs. Lead levels were too higher for kids on public insurance policy like-minded Medicare operating theater Medicaid than kids with private insurance, and higher for children living in zip codes with more housing built ahead 1950.

This finding comes as the EPA is taking steps to help contractors eliminate atomic number 82 from some houses built before the 1970s, Axios reports. Despite being prohibited in the US in 1978, lead-settled paint is still present in many older homes. And, according to an trained worker published alongside the new field in JAMA Pediatrics, lead-based paint and rouge scatter is still the leading causal agent of jumper cable exposure in children, MedPage Today notes.

In addition to lead paint, the US removed lead from gasoline, solder, and plumbing or so the same time, the editorial authors say, leading to a significant turn down in BLLs. While the median BLL for kids under six was a whopping 15 µg/dL between 1976 and 1980, the median charge now is less than 1µg/dL.

But older, not-refurbished infrastructure is clearly still exposing kids to lead and putting them at risk. And this photo can be avoided — with sufficient funding, cities and states can remove lead and keep children off the hook and some efforts are underway. The new base posting working its way through Congress allocates money for lead tobacco pipe removal, MedPage Today reports. In improver, the publication says, California recently secure hundreds of millions of dollars from lead paint producers to help ameliorate damages.

As the editorial authors note, "removal of lead paint from homes across the United States will non be inexpensive." But, they add, doing sol could lede to evidential semipermanent wellness benefits — what they call a "extraordinary-time investment in the future of the US."

https://www.fatherly.com/news/over-half-of-kids-in-the-u-s-still-have-lead-in-their-blood-no-amount-is-safe/

Source: https://www.fatherly.com/news/over-half-of-kids-in-the-u-s-still-have-lead-in-their-blood-no-amount-is-safe/

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