National Center for Healthy Housing

While lead poisoning is something my son Sean will live with for the rest of his life, the outcome could have been much worse had the local and state health departments not had the resources to help us. Without federal funding for both of these agencies, Sean would never have been tested for lead by a WIC nurse. Our home would not have been tested for lead-based paint in time to save us from an environmental hazard. There would not have been any nurse-related check ups and blood work schedules in place. We would not have been directed to AEA 267 to oversee my son’s education.

To put it simply, we might never have known that Sean was lead poisoned. Or worse, we might have lost him. We will forever be thankful to Mike Prideaux, the Black Hawk County Health Department Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, and Rita Gergely, Iowa Department of Public Health who have been a huge part of our lives over these past nine years.

Nine years ago this coming June, our whole world changed. That summer, the company that my husband worked for closed it’s doors without any notice. Since my husband was a contractor, we did not qualify for unemployment. We went on WIC for one month just to help out during this time. During our meeting with the WIC nurses, they did a routine finger stick on both of my sons for lead levels. The next week, I received a call from Mike Prideaux of the Black Hawk County Health Department, telling me that my three year old son had lead poisoning. Sean’s blood lead level was 24—over twice the allowed level—and subsequently he needed to have a venous blood test to confirm it.

A few days later, I received another alarming phone call from the health department. Sean’s venous blood lead level was not 24 as the finger stick had shown, but was actually 40 – four times the allowed limit at that time! Sean had to start having routine blood work until he reached a blood lead level under 10 in back to back tests. I thought this might only take a few months, but little did I know it would take a total of four years.

On Monday, the Boston Globe published an article about how the U.S. is preparing to cut aid for lead poisoning prevention efforts.

I’m not sure if it’s because or I work at the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) or despite working here, but when my daughter’s pediatrician suggested that she might have “a little bit of asthma” I clearly remember the nurse patting my shoulder and saying, “Are you okay, mom?” At the tender age of 11 months, the thought of her struggling to breathe was horrifying. Perhaps the “little bit of asthma” comment by her doctor was meant to soften the blow.

I had the good fortune to be working for Senator Jack Reed in 1999 when he introduced a resolution (S. Res 199) to establish National Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week in October. It is both ironic and sad that during the one week each year when we celebrate childhood lead poisoning prevention, we are simultaneously engaged in a battle to protect one of the key federal childhood lead poisoning prevention programs from evisceration.