More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning, roughly twice the previous high estimate, health officials reported Thursday. The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk.
Too much lead can harm developing brains and can mean a lower IQ. Lead poisoning used to be a much larger concern in the United States, but has declined significantly as lead was removed from paint and gasoline and other sources.
The new number translates to about 1 in 38 young children. That estimate suggests a need for more testing and preventive measures, some experts said, but budget cuts last year eliminated federal grant funding for such programs.
Those cuts represent "an abandonment of children," said David Rosner, a Columbia University public health historian who writes books about lead poisoning.
"We've been acting like the problem was solved and this was a thing of the past," he added.
One of the strictest abortion bans in the country will be on the ballot this November...
Martha Lillard, who contracted polio at age five and spent most of her life dependent on...
One in four Israelis now engages in harmful substance use as the psychological fallout from Israel’s...
New York City’s famed Solomon R Guggenheim Museum was among a number of Manhattan buildings that...
