The Rock County Health Department is unification other agencies across the nation in recognize Oct. 24 - 30 as Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. Although lead poisoning is completely preventable, nearly a quarter of a million children living in the United States have blood lead levels high enough to cause important damage to their health. Lead interferes with the usual development of a young child’s brain, causing lower IQ, attention disorders, developmental delays and violent behavior problems. Poisoned children also tend to be at high risk of dipping out of school, of teen pregnancy, of juvenile delinquency and of violent crime as young adults.
Lead poison has been called “the silent disease,” because it may show no noticeable symptoms and its effects may occur gradually. “The permanent developmental injure lead can cause to a young child, such as a learning disability, may not be evident until elementary school,” said Matt Wesson, an environmental health expert with the Rock County Health Department. Sources of lead exposure among U.S. children are most usually from lead-based paint and lead-impure dust found in deteriorating buildings. Lead was not barred from paint until 1978 and was used in high concentration before 1960.
Children in Rock County have a better risk of exposure due to the number of older housing in the county 41 percent of Rock County housing was build before 1960. “The fact that a lot of our older housing has been changed into rental units, which tend to be less maintained and have more worsening paint issues, adds to the risk,” Wesson said. A misconception some parents and landlords have is that poisoning occurs only by eating or on chewing lead-passed paint. “Young children are regularly poisoned through the contaminated dust created from failing lead-based paint. This nearly invisible dust is either inhaled or more usually gets on fingers and toys that eventually end up in their mouths,” Wesson said.
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Lead poison has been called “the silent disease,” because it may show no noticeable symptoms and its effects may occur gradually. “The permanent developmental injure lead can cause to a young child, such as a learning disability, may not be evident until elementary school,” said Matt Wesson, an environmental health expert with the Rock County Health Department. Sources of lead exposure among U.S. children are most usually from lead-based paint and lead-impure dust found in deteriorating buildings. Lead was not barred from paint until 1978 and was used in high concentration before 1960.
Children in Rock County have a better risk of exposure due to the number of older housing in the county 41 percent of Rock County housing was build before 1960. “The fact that a lot of our older housing has been changed into rental units, which tend to be less maintained and have more worsening paint issues, adds to the risk,” Wesson said. A misconception some parents and landlords have is that poisoning occurs only by eating or on chewing lead-passed paint. “Young children are regularly poisoned through the contaminated dust created from failing lead-based paint. This nearly invisible dust is either inhaled or more usually gets on fingers and toys that eventually end up in their mouths,” Wesson said.
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