Children who spent more time at home in 2020 and 2021 may be at a higher risk for lead exposure, according to new data from the CDC. It’s a question of environment: Normally, kids spend the majority of their time at school or daycare centers, where exposure to lead-based paint is essentially non-existent. American homes, however, have not been systematically tested for lead-based paint, and a 2017 report found that upwards of 1.2 million children in the US have elevated levels of lead in their blood.
Routine testing of children at 1 and 2 years of age helps public health organizations track the rate of lead toxicity, which has gone down overall since the 1980s, according to the New York Times. However, in 2020, routine testing for blood lead levels dropped 34%, with an estimated 10,000 children untested. Fewer medical services have been provided to children overall over the past 18 months, due to COVID lockdowns.
Young children are more susceptible to lead-based paint because of their tendency to put fingers or objects (toys or paint chips) in their mouths, and their bodies absorb lead readily because they are rapidly developing, according to the CDC.
Early identification of children with lead exposure can indicate that there is a lead-based paint source in their home, allowing parents or housing managers to follow up with testing potential sources and mitigating the problem. Although there is no way to reverse lead poisoning, treatments can reduce blood lead levels over time. For children who experience high blood lead levels, educational and medical supports may be needed.
The CDC also found that children from racial or ethnic minority groups and from families who have been economically or socially marginalized, experience a disproportional impact from both lead-based paint and from the lack of consistent testing occurring through the pandemic. Living in older housing does come with a higher risk of lead-based paint exposure, but it doesn’t need to be that way.
Testing for lead-based paint is both easy and affordable. Lead-based paint testing services such as those offered by Healthy Habitat, use professional laboratories to test paint samples for traces of lead. Even a small amount can be toxic to children, so be sure to utilize a service that takes multiple swab tests from different areas of the home (our technicians take up to 5 with no additional charge).
“If you don’t test, you don’t find,” said one children’s health expert quoted by the New York Times. “If you don’t find, you don’t intervene, and the kid continues to be exposed, continues potentially to be ingesting lead.” He added: “And then it can progress, and by the time you check, things will have gotten worse.”
For home buyers, testing a pre-1978 home for lead-based paint before purchasing is especially recommended, because paying for remediation actions can and should be discussed as part of the home-sale negotiations.