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more_legal_areas lead_exposureIngesting or breathing even small amounts of lead can be harmful, especially to children. Lead exposure in children can slow growth and development. Causing health problems such as liver and kidney failure, anemia, brain damage and even death, the visible signs of lead poisoning are undetectable. The only way to find out of lead poisoning is present is to have a screening. Unfortunately, the majority of people suffering from lead poisoning will not detect any signs of lead poisoning until it has become very serious.
Signs of lead poisoning will not be associated to typical illness symptoms but will show up in ways that make it harder to detect. Chronic exposure to low levels of lead can be very detrimental to the mental development in children with such signs of lead poisoning including decreased IQ and behavioral problems. Other signs of lead poisoning can include hyperirritability, aggressive behavior, decreased appetite and energy, poor sleeping, headaches, constipation and loss of recently acquired developmental skills in young children.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has said the overall incidence of lead poisoning has significantly decreased over the last decade, but there are still hundreds of thousands of estimated cases of lead poisoning that are still suffered. Over the years, the focus of lead poisoning has been predominantly on children and fetuses because of their great susceptibility to permanent damages because they have not fully developed yet. Even though the Lead Contamination Act of 1988 authorized the CDC to initiation program efforts to eliminate childhood lead poisoning in the U.S., the incidence of it and signs of lead poisoning have continued to this day.
Since there are no visible signs of lead poisoning, especially difficult to detect in babies and children, a blood test is the only way to see if high levels of lead exist. It is recommended that every child be tested for signs of lead poisoning at six months old. The CDC has said since its 1990 lead poisoning prevention program inception that nearly 60 childhood lead poisoning prevention programs were funded, intended to serve as catalysts and models for the development of non-funded programs and activities in other states and communities. Still, the CDC has estimated 890,000 U.S. children ages one to five have elevated blood lead levels, and more than one-fifth of African-American children living in housing built before 1946 have elevated blood lead levels.
Housing has been identified as one of the most important risk factors for lead exposure. Over 80 percent of all homes built prior to 1978 have lead-based paint in them, and the figures of children living in housing built before 1946 indicates the older housing paint deterioration continues to be extremely problematic. Kids tend to put their hands in their mouths much more often than adults, thus making a lead ingestion transfer much more likely.
Lead poisoning risks exist beyond just paint, continued reports of toy-related lead poisoning points to the many hidden dangers that continue to threaten children. Doctors are advised that signs of lead poisoning should be considered if unexplained anemia or stomach symptoms do not follow the usual course. A 1990 New England Journal of Medicine study described the signs of lead poisoning to “result in significant and serious impairment of academic success, specifically a seven fold increase in failure to graduate from high school, lower class standing, greater absenteeism, impairment of reading skills sufficiently extensive to be labeled reading disability and deficits in vocabulary, fine motor skills, reaction time and hand-eye coordination.”
For more information on signs of lead poisoning, please contact us to consult with an attorney.
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