Lead poisoning didn’t just happen in Flint; and it isn’t something that ended in 1978 when lead paint was banned.
Lead poisoning kills and disables millions globally every year; and sickens millions more.
But this isn’t just a problem that happens somewhere else. Children in Michigan are the third highest in the nation for elevated lead in their bloodstream.
78% of Michigan children tested contained lead in their bloodstream. Every medical and scientific authority agrees: there is no safe level of lead in a child’s blood. That means even low levels are concerning. Lead poisoning is considered a public health threat for Michigan children, and is estimated to cost the state at least $270 million annually.
It’s scary, but there’s hope! Being informed about the risk is one of the first steps to do something different and protect our children.
Read on for Michigan children’s specific risks, and what we can do about it.
Buildings and housing
Around 60% of homes or buildings in Washtenaw County are built before 1978, which is when lead paint was banned. Homes built before 1940 are considered guaranteed to have lead. Even if your child lives in a brand new home, they can still be lead poisoned if their grandparents or friends live in a pre-1978 home, or if their school was built before 1978.
“There’s a misconception that a child has to pick a paint chip off the wall and put it in the mouth, but that’s not how most children are poisoned,” said Jane Nickert, director of nursing at the Washtenaw Health Department. It can be as seemingly innocuous, she says, as grandparents doing renovation on their home.
RELATED: Lead Poisoning in Children: There is No Safe Level
“I think the reason why lead is not on the radar is because it is something invisible. We can’t see it,” said Dr. Ghada Harsouni, with Honeybee Pediatrics and Lactation in Ann Arbor. “I wish parents knew that lead can be anywhere. I want them to know the importance of maintaining an excellent relationship with their pediatrician that they trust, to ask them questions, screen appropriately and do the testing. Clay pots, toys, even dirt outside where children are playing, can have lead.”
Having a city like Ann Arbor that is not severely affected by natural disasters is actually a bad thing when it comes to lead: when natural disasters damage or destroy old homes, they are rebuilt up to code, without the use of lead paint. The fewer natural disasters, the longer old homes stick around.
Children in low-income households in Washtenaw county are at greater risk, as are children in rental homes and older homes, and BIPOC children. Around 11% of Washtenaw County’s population is Black, and structural racism can set up practices that expose poor children and Black children to lead poisoning in low-income housing. Even in a town as welcoming and inclusive as Ann Arbor, structural racism still has an impact on families.
Historic homes and renovations
Historic home organizations or neighborhoods that have excessive hoops for homeowners to jump through in order to do renovations exacerbate the problem, as it can be difficult or overwhelming for homeowners to make updates, and therefore they leave old lead materials or paint in their home. Ann Arbor has 15 historic districts; Ypsilanti has the third largest historic district in the state.
Conversely, doing renovations in a pre-1978 home is a major source of lead exposure for children. If care isn’t taken to entirely seal off the room, and then to remove the lead by a HEPA vacuum (a regular vacuum can just spread lead particles throughout the house) and special de-lead-ing cleaner, a renovation in a room with lead paint will almost certainly expose a child to lead.
“From an environmental perspective, lead is all around us, deposited in our soil,” Nickert said. Because children play outside more, “or because we open our windows more, or there’s more road construction–it can get into the air and get into our houses.”
And faucets made before 2014 — yes, not the ’70s, but just ten years ago — can contain lead or lead solder and contaminate your water.
Construction season
Even if you live in a brand-new home, your child can actually be lead-poisoned by construction season. Yes, you heard that right–Michigan’s infamous construction season is dangerous to our children.
If there is lead in the soil — from old homes, past renovations, etc — then disturbing the soil kicks the lead particles into the air, freeing them for inhalation. When the lead particles settle, if they’re on the sidewalk or road or yard, they are now available to be touched and accidentally ingested.
If your neighbor is getting renovations done on an older home —or the older house next to your favorite playground is getting work done–then lead particles from the home can get tracked outside and similarly expose your child.
What can we, as parents and caregivers, do?
First, get tested. That’s the only way to know if your child is exposed to lead.
The state of Michigan is now taking lead poisoning so seriously that Governor Whitmer signed a bill into law just last year to mandate that all physicians order blood tests to test young children for lead.
Second, if your child tests positive for any level of lead, identify all the places your child may be getting exposed. Our first article in this series is a great resource to identify little-known but dangerous areas of exposure.
If your child has an elevated level, Nickert notes, “I don’t think residents, and maybe even some medical providers in the community, understand that when we have a child with an elevated lead level, we offer that family a home visit. A venous blood level of 3.5 or higher, we offer free services to help alleviate these fears about lead poisoning and what it means for these children, to give parents education and resources around hopefully identifying a potential source of exposure, and educating parents on how to mitigate that.”
The Health Department can provide free lead testing to many families.
Third, read the rest of our lead series (being published over the next couple months). We’ll be going over practical steps you can take to protect your child from being exposed and how to support them in their healing if they’ve been lead poisoned.
This is an article in our series on lead poisoning hazards for Michigan’s children: its prevalence, its impact, how to avoid being lead poisoned, and how to heal after exposure has happened.
