A Renewed Commitment to Prevent Childhood Lead Exposure in the post-Flint Era
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The February session of Grand Rounds “A Renewed Commitment to Prevent Childhood Lead Exposure in the post-Flint Era,” was viewed in 6 foreign countries and in 45 states, plus the District of Columbia.
Over the past 40 years, exposure to lead has declined in the United States. However, millions are still being exposed in their homes and environment. Lead exposure can seriously harm a child’s health and there is no known safe blood lead level in children. Yet more than 500,000 children in the United States have elevated blood lead levels.
Lead exposure often occurs with no obvious symptoms, and frequently goes unrecognized. Thousands of cities across the nation have significant potential lead hazards. The Flint, MI water crisis which began in 2014 highlighted the problem of lead exposure as a public health, environmental, and economic development issue.
Join us to hear how we can prevent childhood lead exposure by focusing on lead elimination and building federal and private-public partnerships.
Dr. Phoebe Thorpe interviews Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha whose research exposed the Flint, Michigan water crisis. Learn how lead poisoning in children remains a problem in the United States and how childhood lead exposure can be prevented.
For more information on lead poisoning, visit the CDC lead website.
Click hereexternal icon to visit the Flint Registry.
How will Flint be considered lead free within the next few years?
"Flint Lead Free" is an initiative of a diverse set of public, private, and non-profit members, stakeholders, and partners including property managers, housing organizations, legal services, community organizations, and city/county/state government that is striving to make Flint a lead-safe city. Through tracking and reporting on elevated blood lead levels, environmental assessments, and interventions and by providing a clearinghouse of lead-related programming, education, and training, their mission is to eliminate lead exposure in soil and water in Flint by 2022. To achieve this, public health staff in Flint are identifying existing lead-related programs and target audiences for training such as outreach workers, home visiting program staff, and construction workers as well residents. Staff will track the number of environmental investigations completed, number of homes identified for abatement, number of homes abated, number of lead services lines in existence and the number replaced, and the number of water tests > 10 ppb.
My current understanding is that water regulations usually "end at the water meter", and that the pipe replacement project is focused on municipal plumbing. How will plumbing on private property (inside apartments and homes) be addressed?
No, lead service lines are those of the individual homes. The Lead Service Line Replacement collaborative provides information on approaches to lead service line replacement https://www.lslr-collaborative.org/approaches-to-replacement.htmlexternal icon.
- Adrienne Ettinger, ScD, MPH, MS
- Chief
Lead Poisoning Prevention and Environmental Health Tracking Branch
National Center for Environmental Health, CDC
"Preventing Childhood Lead Poisoning"
- Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH
- Director
Pediatric Public Health Initiative
Associate Professor
Department of Pediatrics & Human Development
C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health
Division of Public Health
Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital
"Lilly & Flint"
- Patrick Breysse, PhD
- Director
National Center for Environmental Health and
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, CDC
"Opportunities for Lead Elimination"
- John Iskander, MD, MPH
- Scientific Director
- Phoebe Thorpe, MD, MPH
- Deputy Scientific Director
- Susan Laird, MSN, RN
- Communications Director
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CDC Course Code: PHGR10
CPE UAN: 0387-0000-19-002-H04-P
For more information, see Grand Rounds Continuing Education.