Shelby County hopes to screen twice as many kids for lead exposure
“Lead poisoning threatens the health of Shelby County residents, particularly young children in underserved communities,” Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said in a statement. “Expanded screening of children and testing and remediation of home environments will pay off for our entire community in better health both now and in the future.” (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
A Shelby County program that screens children for lead exposure is getting a $1.5 million federal grant.
The funding — a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — will expand the Shelby County Health Department’s childhood lead poisoning prevention program.
The program already provides lead screenings to children and includes home and school visits to educate people about the dangers of lead.
With the additional grant, the health department said it could screen twice as many children as it did last year, when it screened 3,700 kids.
The program will also be able to start testing homes for lead, radon and pollutants linked to asthma as well as add a mobile unit that goes to the county’s most affected communities.
There is no safe amount of lead exposure on humans.
Even in small amounts, lead can cause hyperactivity, behavioral issues, learning problems and lower IQ, among other issues. It’s toxic to everyone, but children under the age of six are more sensitive to lead, and more than 2% of Shelby County children in that age bracket are impacted by lead exposure.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris called the grant a “game-changer.”
“Lead poisoning threatens the health of Shelby County residents, particularly young children in underserved communities,” Harris said in a statement. “Expanded screening of children and testing and remediation of home environments will pay off for our entire community in better health both now and in the future.”
Neighborhoods with older housing stock and higher rates of poverty are most at risk, and Shelby County has a higher percentage of homes built before 1978 — the year lead paint was banned — than any other county in Tennessee.
“Increasing the lead screening rate of Shelby County children is extremely important,” said Dr. Tobi Adeyeye Amosun, the state’s deputy commissioner for population health. “By identifying lead exposures early, follow-up with children affected can be made to ensure better health outcomes.”
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Shelby County Health DepartmentKeely Brewer
Keely Brewer is a Report for America corps member covering environmental impacts on communities of color in Memphis. She is working in partnership with the Ag & Water Desk, a sustainable reporting network aimed at telling water and agriculture stories across the Mississippi River Basin.
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