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 “The new lower action level means that more children will be
identified as having lead exposure, allowing parents, doctors,
public health officials, and communities to take action earlier to
reduce the child’s future exposure to lead,” said Governor Bruce
Rauner. “We’ve made great strides in reducing the number of children
exposed to lead, and now we’re taking it to the next level to
protect our future generations.”
“There is no safe level of lead exposure, which is why it is
important to identify children with elevated blood lead levels
quickly and take steps to intervene,” said IDPH Director Nirav D.
Shah, M.D., J.D. “Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown
to contribute to learning disabilities, developmental delays,
behavioral problems, as well as a number of other negative health
effects. The health effects of lead exposure cannot be entirely
reversed.”
The burden of Illinois childhood lead poisoning remains one of the
highest in the nation. Provisional data shows that of the
approximately 229,000 children tested in 2017, more than 7,000 had
blood lead levels at or above 5 µg/dL.
Illinois law requires that all children six years of age or younger
be assessed for lead risk, and physicians must perform a blood lead
test for children who live in high-risk areas or meet other risk
criteria.
Ashley and Tyler Scudder learned that their oldest daughter Phoebe
had a high level of lead in her blood when she was a year old. It
was 23 micrograms per deciliter. Although she’s not sure it was due
to lead exposure, Ashley said she noticed her daughter was having
sleeping issues and slipped from the 90th percentile in weight to
the 60th percentile in just a couple months. Little Phoebe had lost
her appetite, which can be one of the symptoms of lead poisoning.
The Scudder’s were renovating a home that was around 100 years old
while living in an apartment that was about the same age. Lead paint
was often used on walls and window sills in older homes. Either
place could have been the source of lead.
Ashley is now an advocate for lead education and getting the word
out. “Even as a nurse, I had no idea that lead poisoning was so
easy. That children can get it from dust, they don’t have to be
gnawing on the walls or window sills.”
Ashley says she thinks lowering the level from 10 to 5 is important
because more people will know about the dangers of lead. “It’s in
the soil. It’s in the environment. It’s everywhere and people have
no idea. I have friends that still didn’t know that lead poisoning
can cause permanent damage.”
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With the news rules, children who test at or above the new
intervention level of 5 µg/dL will receive a home visit from a
public health nurse who will educate families on ways to lower the
blood lead level and reduce lead exposure, including proper
nutrition, hygiene, and housekeeping. Public health environmental
experts will also inspect residences for all children with an
elevated blood lead level of 10 µg/dL or greater to determine the
source(s) of the child’s lead exposure.
The rules also propose increased enforcement authority for
violations of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Act and Code, including
property owners who fail to perform lead remediation on a property
where children with elevated blood levels live. Additionally, the
proposed rules increase the maximum fine for violators so that they
comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules and
impose penalties for returned checks or insufficient payments. This
rulemaking establishes the safest way for lead to be removed from
homes and ensures that workers engaged in this work are
appropriately remediating lead hazards and are not creating
additional risk to residents.
Other State efforts to reduce childhood exposure to lead include:
- The passage of recent legislation requiring schools and daycares
to sample for lead contamination in water.
- The Governor’s Cabinet on Children and Youth chose reducing
childhood lead poisoning as one of its three priority projects. The
Children’s Cabinet team has worked to improve identification of and
response to affected children; ensure safe homes by working on
strategies to remediate lead hazards and prevent future exposure;
improve the quality and management of collected lead data to support
data driven decision making; connect lead prevention and case
management strategies with additional social service supports; and
drive lead prevention and education initiatives.
- The state budget includes $15 million for the Comprehensive Lead
Education, Reduction, and Window Replacement Program (Clear-Win).
The primary goal of Clear-Win is to partner with the Illinois
Housing Development Authority and the Department of Commerce and
Economic Opportunity in hiring local contractors to remove sources
of lead exposure from the residences of children with elevated blood
lead levels.
- The state budget also includes $50 million for K-12 schools to
mitigate sources of lead. This initiative will be administered by
the Capital Development Board through grants issued from the School
Construction Fund.
The proposed rules can be found in the Illinois Register on the
Illinois Secretary of State website.
[Illinois Department of Public Health] |
