Value Of Lead Poison Study Doubted Screening Of Kids Called ‘Waste’ In Face Of Other Health Needs

Idaho is spending a quarter-million dollars studying lead poisoning in children just as health officials nationwide are questioning the value of such efforts.

Sharpening the debate is that more pressing child health-care needs, such as immunization, often are not met.

Idaho, one of many states to conduct the tests, is spending $60,000 in federal money to screen children referred by parents or doctors in southwestern Idaho. The state also has $200,000 to educate the public.

“I think it’s a big waste of money,” said Dr. Edgar Schoen, a California physician and longtime critic of widespread lead screening.

Idaho health officials have a different view.

“Lead has been identified as one of the most preventable health concerns on a nationwide basis,” said Steve West, chief of the Idaho Bureau of Environmental Health. “And we’re trying to determine how to best respond to the issue here in Idaho.”

The fears reached a peak in 1991 when the federal Centers for Disease Control described lead poisoning as the No. 1 environmental health threat to children. It recommended screening. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the agency is now called, will revise its recommendations next year and likely will suggest targeting inner-city communities only, said Dr. Birt Harvey of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Prevention of Lead Poisoning.

The average amount of lead found in children’s bloodstreams has declined fourfold during the past 20 years, mainly because of restrictions on the use of leaded gasoline. In addition, a 1970 ban on lead-based paint means fewer houses can be found with the poisonous coating.

Lead poisoning in children is a real problem. Some experts believe exposure even to low levels of lead can cause children to lose IQ points and suffer attention-deficit disorders and other behavioral problems.

But the most common source today is believed to be paint chips from older buildings, a greater problem in the East than in the West, said Dr. Cathy Cleary of the Family Practice Residency Clinic in Boise.