Michigan
board recommends universal lead screening for infants
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[November 18, 2016]
By Timothy Mclaughlin
(Reuters) - Infants and toddlers in
Michigan should undergo mandatory lead screening, a panel of experts
said on Thursday, as the Midwestern state continues to grapple with the
ongoing effects of a lead crisis linked to contaminated water in the
city of Flint.
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The Child Lead Poisoning Elimination Board, created in May by
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, said that required screening for
exposure to the toxic metal would help fill gaps in treatment and
prevention that occur under the current targeted blood screening
recommendations.
"Because we are not screening all children, we don't know how big of
a problem it is and we don't know where these (exposure) hot spots
are," Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, director of the Pediatric Residency
Program at Hurley Medical Center in Flint and a member of the board,
said at a news conference.
The report recommends children be tested at the ages of 9-12 months
and again at 24-36 months. This testing would help to identify
high-risk areas that would then be subject to more comprehensive
remediation efforts.
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The Roadmap to Eliminating Child Lead Exposure also recommends
environmental lead testing as part of a primary prevention program
and building a database of homes that have increased levels of lead.
"Right now we are essentially, as a state, intervening after a child
has been lead poisoned," said Lyke Thompson, a board member. "We
need to turn that around and make sure we get ahead of the problem."
Michigan has been at the center of a public health crisis since last
year, when tests found high levels of lead in blood samples taken
from children in Flint.
The lead exposure was linked to an April 2014 decision by a
state-appointed emergency manager to switch Flint's water source to
the Flint River from Lake Huron to save money. The more corrosive
river water caused lead to leach from city pipes and into the
drinking water.
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The predominantly black city of 100,000 switched back in October
2015, but the water has not fully returned to normal. Flint has been
replacing lead pipes running to homes, and state officials have said
the water is safe to drink if properly filtered.
Last week, a federal judge ordered state and city officials to
deliver bottled water directly to qualified residents in Flint.
On Thursday, the state filed a motion to block the order, saying it
"far exceeds what is necessary to ensure Flint residents have access
to safe drinking water."
(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Alan Crosby
and Dan Grebler)
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