An alliance of leading scientists, health professionals and children's health advocates, known as Project TENDR, issued a call this week for national goals necessary to eliminate lead poisoning.
“We want to reduce exposure so that by 2021 there is no child with blood lead levels above 5 microgram/deciliter which is the current reference limit set by the Centers for Disease Control,” Chen said. Currently about 2.5 percent of U.S. children between ages 1 and 5 still have blood lead levels above that. Some may say that lead is already low or that we are pushing for too much, but, lead is entirely toxic, period.”
Recent research shows that even low levels of lead in a child's blood can harm brain development, leading to learning disabilities, lowered IQ and attention disorders. Read the article in the the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics.
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