ATLANTA — For the first time in 20 years, U.S. health officials have lowered the threshold for lead poisoning in young children.
The new standard means that hundreds of thousands more youngsters could be diagnosed with high levels of lead. Too much lead is harmful to developing brains and can mean a lower IQ.
The standard is for children younger than 6. Recent research persuaded experts that young children could be harmed from lead levels in their blood that are lower than the old standard.
“Unfortunately, many, many more parents will be getting bad news,” said Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, a Maryland-based nonprofit focused on hazards to kids in homes.
“There is no safe level of blood lead in children,” said Christopher Portier of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC announced the change Wednesday, adopting recommendations made in January by an advisory panel of experts. At the same time, CDC officials acknowledged they don’t have additional funds to help doctors or health departments do more testing of children or find and clean up lead contamination.
The Associated Press
