ERIC Number: ED588383
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Oct
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Lead and Wisconsin's Children
Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
Lead poisoning harms brain and nervous system development and is most detrimental to children resulting in, among other things, reduced attention span, learning disabilities, higher high school dropout rates and delinquency, and higher likelihood of violent crime in adulthood. One major source of lead poisoning in Wisconsin is old housing stock. Lead was banned from paint in 1978, but there is still a lot of lead based paint in Wisconsin homes, which decays and creates dust with lead that children can inhale. Wisconsin has at least 176,000 lead service lines that carry water to homes and businesses, which can carry lead to drinking water. Blood lead poisoning is preventable. From 2007 to 2011, the Wisconsin Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program partnered with Wisconsin's Medicaid program to offer Medicaid providers blood lead testing reports. Reinstituting this initiative could increase the number of children tested, giving them better access to care and providing better data to help policymakers target solutions. Expanding testing to cover all housing older than 1950 could help properly target vulnerable populations. The most impactful way to reduce blood lead poisoning is to prevent it from happening. Although prevention efforts come at a significant cost, the savings are immense. The Wisconsin Department of Human Services estimates if blood lead poisoning was eliminated, $7 billion in costs would be saved in areas such as medical care, special education, crime, and juvenile delinquency. They also estimate a $21 billion increase in new earnings as the result of increased high-school graduation and lifetime ability to earn.
Descriptors: Poisoning, Hazardous Materials, Children, Prevention, Child Safety, Access to Health Care, Costs, Cost Effectiveness, Accountability
Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. 555 West Washington Avenue, Madison, WI 53703. Tel: 608-284-0580; Fax: 608-284-0583; Web site: http://www.wccf.org/publication/
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Annie E. Casey Foundation
Authoring Institution: Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
Identifiers - Location: Wisconsin
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A