"For young children, any amount of lead exposure is bad. The element can damage children’s brains, stunt growth and cause developmental problems. Now, a new definition of lead poisoning will increase the number of U.S. children found to have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood.
In 2020, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and UNICEF found that a third of the world’s children have lead poisoning, and estimated that 1.23 million children in the United States have high blood lead levels.
That number will now rise thanks to a change in the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines lead poisoning.
The agency used to define lead poisoning in children as 5 micrograms per deciliter of a child’s blood. Now, it has lowered that number to 3.5 micrograms per deciliter."
Erin Blakemore reports for the Washington Post November 7, 2021.
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