The Mendocino County Childhood Lead Poison Prevention Program is no longer active. For information from the state of California, please visit their website at: http://www.cdph.ca.gov

In 2007 the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled millions of Barbie and Fisher-Price toys by Mattel after determining they contained high amounts of lead. This reminded the public about the issue of childhood lead poisoning, as has the recall of vinyl lunch bags by the California Department of Public Health. In fact, probably 310,000 children living in the United States have blood lead levels high enough to cause significant damage to their health. Lead poisoning can cause brain damage, learning and behavior problems or, rarely, even death.

The New England Journal of Medicine reported an average drop of 7.4 IQ points in children as their blood lead levels increase from 1 to 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood. Lead poisoning (like high blood pressure) usually has few visible symptoms but nevertheless exacts a toll on the health of the patient until found with a blood test.

Despite the ever-threatening presence of lead in the environment today, lead poisoning is entirely preventable.

There are many ways to help prevent lead poisoning. They include:

• Washing young children's hands often
• Feeding children nutritious foods that are low in fat

First and foremost, hazards in a child's environment must be identified and controlled or removed safely. Sources of lead include:

• Dust and chips from paint in homes built before 1978
• Lead dust in soil
• Various imported goods, such as toys, Mexican candy, traditional ceramics, children's jewelry, vinyl lunch bags
• Folk remedies
• Some paint on older bathtubs
• Melting lead for ammunition or fishing weights

The Mendocino County Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program provides technical assistance and support to medical professionals to identify and test for lead, and outreach to the community about preventing childhood lead poisoning. When children are found with elevated lead levels, families receive follow-up services including health education, home visits, nursing case management, follow-up lead tests, and environmental investigations to determine the source of the lead. This can cause the removal of the lead hazard, prevent lead poisoning of siblings, and prevent further damage to the brain and body of the child.

Children under between 6 months and 6 years of age are most vulnerable to lead poisoning, though it can affect adults as well. All children receiving services from federally sponsored programs such as WIC, Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, CalKids and CHDP must have their blood checked for lead at age 1 and age 2, as they are known to be at high risk.

Foster children and their siblings are also at high risk for lead poisoning, and should be considered for blood lead testing.

Immigrant children are another group at high risk for lead poisoning and should always be tested upon arrival in the United States. While most lead poisoning nationwide is due to deteriorating lead paint, in Mendocino County most lead poisoning cases are associated with practices such as using lead pottery, home remedies or eating Mexican candies with lead. Other children have been lead poisoned due to lead in a bathtub, and melting lead to re-load firearms.

From July 2007 through June 2008, the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Health Educator delivered 14 educational presentations in English and Spanish, reaching more than 106 participants. She attended 13 collaborative meetings to coordinate outreach or share information with other agencies, and she or other staff attended 3 health fairs, providing resources and education in English and Spanish to hundreds of participants. The Program held face-to-face meetings with 37 medical provider staff members to discuss lead poisoning. 3 press releases and 2 radio interviews were conducted to update the public about products with lead and having lead-safe holidays. Lead appeared in many children's products, so the Program was busy sending out 9 mailings regarding lead-tainted products.

For more information on lead poisoning, call the Mendocino County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at (707) 472-2600 or toll free at 1-800-734-7793.

Links

• To keep informed of products recalled due to lead content, see the Consumer Product Safety Commission website where you can sign up for email alerts about hazardous children's products.
• The California Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch has information and resources for parents, community members, child care providers and construction workers that may have contact with lead. Medical providers will find the Management Guidelines on Childhood Lead Poisoning and Standard of Care on Screening Regulations, two valuable resources.
• A list of candies that have been tested for lead with photos and test results.
• The California Poison Control Systems has developed a website on lead in candy. Resources for families, providers and retailers are available for download.
• High amounts of lead have been found in jewelry, especially inexpensive children's jewelry. Learn more about lead in jewelry and its regulations.

Back to Nursing Programs

— Free software is required to read PDFs.