DETROIT – Lead has been in our environment for ages, but the amount of harm it does, even at low levels, to the developing brain, has only gained more attention in recent years, and that's driven Detroit to be very proactive.
Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the executive director of the city of Detroit Health Department, said the city has made important progress over the years.
"Since 2009, the number of elevated blood levels in Detroit's children has decreased by 50 percent, which is great, but I'm a mother of three children even if there's the potential risk to one child, it's one child too many," Khaldun said.
City leaders are not resting on their laurels.
"My vision for the department is really to make sure we're focused on neighborhoods and focused on people," Khaldun said. "That's really what our lead initiative is.
"Lead Safe Detroit is an initiative that really provides that early education or support services and the outreach so we can protect children from lead exposure. The first thing that everyone needs to know is if you have a child under the age of 6, your child needs to be tested. You can go to your pediatrician's office or you can go to one of our Detroit Health Department clinics to get tested for free."
Despite the fact that such testing is free, Khaldun said only about a third of children in Detroit have been tested.
"It's not just about screening," Khaldun said. "What we do after that screen is very important, and that's what our lead safe coalition that started last year is actually about."
That includes early individualized case management, home visits to find the source of exposure, evaluation of siblings and family members and abatement of lead in homes with lead paint, which remains the most common source of exposure, even when the homes are abandoned.
"Our Detroit demolition program is the largest in the country, but it also has some of the strictest protocols when it comes to the lead dust that develops when a home is demolished," Khaldun said.
The houses need to be removed, and the city wants to be proactive. The city commissioned a report on the impact.
"Out of all the elevated blood lead levels in Detroit's children, only about 2.4 percent of them may be associated with demolitions," Khaldun said.
Officials found those children lived within about eight houses of a home that was demolished during the warmer months between May and September, and that brought action.
"Because of that study, we are now implementing immediately certain provisions so that we can protect the city's children," Khaldun said.
The city's water has been extensively tested and is completely save. In fact, part of the correction in Flint was to switch to Detroit water.
For more information on the Detroit Lead Safe Coalition, click here.