State legislators are considering strengthening Georgia’s law on lead exposure in children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no safe level of lead exposure in children, and state law on when to intervene when testing a child for high levels of lead falls short of federal guidelines.
Children exposed to lead can end up with lifelong challenges. It affects the brain and nervous system and can cause learning and behavioral problems.
CDC recommends that if a child has sufficiently high blood counts, follow-up is done, such as to find and remove sources of lead in the child’s home. This limit is 3.5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. It was lowered from 5 micrograms last year.
Georgian law does not require intervention until a child’s blood lead level reaches 15 micrograms per deciliter of blood.
State Rep. Katie Dempsey, a Republican from Rome, said that means there are children in Georgia who are escaping this intervention.
“So our challenge right now is to miss a population of children who have been exposed,” she said at a committee hearing this week. “This also prevents the state from pursuing enforcement against landlords until blood lead levels reach that level.”
Dempsey is sponsoring a bill that would bring Georgia into line with federal guidelines.
Children can be exposed to lead through paint in old houses, lead pipes, and some toys and cosmetics. They can also be released if collected in the ground where they play.
At the hearing, Dempsey pointed out that there is a state Superfund website just a few miles from the state capital. So much lead was found in the gardens of Atlanta’s English Avenue and Vine City neighborhoods that the US Environmental Protection Agency removed and replaced the soil.
“There are profound problems,” Dempsey said.
Dempsey’s bill passed the committee.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is also working on its lead approach, developing a plan to reduce child exposure and to find and work with communities impacted by high lead levels.
