Nevada

The State of Nevada received $300,00 through cooperative agreement EH21-2102 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in FY 2022. The funds address childhood lead poisoning prevention and surveillance programmatic activities being conducted from September 30, 2022 to September 29, 2023.

The strategies focus on

  • Ensuring blood lead testing and reporting
  • Enhancing blood lead surveillance
  • Improving linkages to recommended services

To learn more about these efforts in Nevada, contact the program below.

Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Las Vegas

4505 South Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89154
Phone: 702-895-1040 (Southern Nevada)
Phone: 702-453-0434 (Northern Nevada)

Success Story 2023

Nevada WIC Updates Referral Policy to Promote Lead Testing for Children and Pregnant and Lactating Clients at Risk for Lead Exposure

Challenge

Lead exposure can have detrimental effects on both adults and children, but it is especially damaging to children under age 6 years. Children and also people who are pregnant and lactating living in households with lower incomes who experience inadequate nutrition are at a substantially higher risk for lead poisoning.  Pregnant and lactating persons in Nevada are not routinely screened—just over 3% of Nevada children younger than age 6 years were screened using blood lead levels in 2022. As such, it is critical to identify pregnant and lactating persons and children younger than age 6 year from households with lower incomes who experience inadequate nutrition so they can receive resources, education, and outreach on lead exposure prevention and healthy eating.

Intervention

With these populations that are high risk in mind, the Nevada Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (NvCLPPP) developed a partnership with the state-level Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program within the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. NvCLPPP presented to the WIC staff on the sources and effects of lead exposure, the importance of blood lead testing in children younger than age 6 years, and ways to reduce exposure. The WIC staff was encouraged to share this information with families of young children.

In February 2022, WIC began drafting a policy requiring their staff to refer families of young children to lead testing services and they created guidelines that support testing for children at 1, 2, 3, and 4 years of age because of the increased risk of lead exposure in their patients. WIC also inquired about lead questionnaire guidelines for pregnant and lactating persons. For consistency, the NvCLPPP staff also updated the childhood lead risk questionnaire and translated both questionnaires to Spanish to ensure they provided linguistically appropriate information. The WIC staff will administer the lead risk questionnaires to WIC participants and share the results and referrals for blood lead tests with medical providers.

Impact

In July 2022, WIC implemented the statewide policy to recommend lead testing for children and pregnant and lactating persons. All WIC staff members in Nevada have been trained on the policy, and they now ask participants once per year about their lead testing history and regularly provide referrals as appropriate. The WIC staff also provides outreach materials on lead poisoning prevention during these interactions.

This publication was supported by the Grant or Cooperative Agreement Number, 1 NUE2EH001366-01-00, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.

Success Story 2021

Expanding Reach by Breaking Down Barriers

Challenge

Environmental, cultural, and social factors increase the risk of lead poisoning among Latino/Hispanic children in Clark County, Nevada. These factors include imported food products, folk remedies, food preparation methods, living in older housing with lead-based paint, and proximity to industrial operations and highways from living in older communities. Complicating this burden is the lack of trust among the Latino/Hispanic population, leading to hesitations in seeking treatment or resources, making outreach to these populations difficult.

Intervention

To address the environmental, social, and cultural barriers, the Nevada Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (NvCLPPP) collaborated with the Vision y Compromiso network to enhance lead poisoning awareness and increase screening using a promotor model. Vision y Compromiso is an organization that helps unify individuals from the Latino/Hispanic community throughout specified regions. The NvCLPPP focused on training community liaisons (promotores) in the Nevada network about lead poisoning prevention, sources, risk, outcomes, and the importance of having children under six screened.

Impact

The NvCLPPP trained ten promotores during the first training session held in April of 2018. These ten promotores represented a variety of institutions in the valley that engage with Latino/Hispanic communities. In addition to training promotores, NvCLPPP anticipates that using the Promotor Model and the Theory of Change, which aim to build relationships, share information, and engage communities into collective action, will build trust and expand messaging with the Latino/Hispanic community about lead poisoning prevention.

Funding for this work was made possible in part by [NUE2EH001364] from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.