With Chinese-made, lead-contaminated toys leading a current toy recall frenzy, it is easy to forget that we need to remember to look in our own home as well if we want to keep our children safe.

The effects of lead poisoning can be devastating. Symptoms include learning disabilities and behavioral problems and at higher levels—seizures, coma, and even death can result.

Throwing away, returning, or plain-out boycotting the purchase of non-organic, foreign-made toys with the potential for lead contamination aren’t enough if we want to remain vigilant. It is also important to remember that lead is a common environmental contaminant that is just as avoidable as it is common.

Dust, soil, and lead-based paint have been identified as the three greatest sources of lead contamination and/or poisoning in this country. While the use of lead-based paint has been banned in countries such as France since before 1920, lead-based paint was not banned for residential use in the U.S. until 1978.

But it is still being used in products such as batteries, ammunition, and pipes.
Is your child at risk? The following screening questionnaire published by the American Academy of Pediatrics can help determine if your child is at risk and needs blood lead testing.

Does your child live in or regularly visit a house or child care facility built before 1950?

Does your child live in or regularly visit a house or child care facility built before 1978 that is being or has been renovated or remodeled within the last 6 months?

Does your child have a sibling or playmate who has or did have lead poisoning?

If you have answered yes to any of the above, it is imperative that you have your child tested for possible lead contamination. Also be sure to have blood lead levels drawn for each member of your family. And if you are unsure of the year in which your home was built, it’s time to find out.

The first line of defense in treatment for elevated blood lead levels is the removal, or being removed from, the source, which will result in a gradual reduction in the blood level. More severe cases may be treated with a treatment called chelation therapy to bind the lead so it is excreted in urine.

Children testing at or above levels of 69, or lower in children displaying signs of lead poisoning, are treated as medical emergencies.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 310,000 children in this country have blood lead levels “greater than 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood”, the level at which public health actions are initiated. The most common and significant sources cited in a recently released CDC study of lead contamination are dust, soil, and lead-based paints.

Although public action is not taken for values less than previously mentioned, it is extremely important to note that no “safe” level of blood lead levels have been determined for children. Naturally, a child’s blood lead level should be zero, but levels up to 9 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood have been considered “normal.”

It is for this very reason that prevention must be seen as the primary source of protection for our children. The current goal of the CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program is to eliminate elevated blood lead levels in children by 2010. Primary courses of action include enforcement of lead safety and housing code requirements, adoption of lead-free practices to “control, contain, and clean up lead dust during painting and remodeling projects,” and continued monitoring of existing housing conditions to detect and prevent deterioration and future lead hazards.

Great strides have been made since 1976, with the CDC citing a dramatic decrease in childhood blood lead levels since that time due to efforts to control the levels of lead in the environment.

With just over two years to meet the CDC deadline, it is certainly an ambitious goal, but one we wholeheartedly support, nonetheless.