Allegheny County Health Dept. approves mandatory lead testing for children

PITTSBURGH — The Allegheny County Board of Health took its first major step Wednesday in requiring children to be tested for lead.

The board approved to make lead testing mandatory for all children 9 to 12 months old and once again at the age of 2.

Allegheny County Health Department Director Karen Hacker said the approval is an important step in tackling the issue of lead poisoning.

"We really have been trying a whole variety of efforts to address lead, and this is one piece of it," she said.

In 2015, 1,400 children were tested for lead poisoning – under a quarter of the county’s population younger than 5 years old.  Of those tested, more than 70 percent had at least five micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. According to experts, any amount of lead in children is dangerous.

"Screening is fine, but you have to do something with it and we're not,” Ray Ferth, child policy director with the University of Pittsburg, said.

While Ferth believes the tests are a start, he said the health department needs a plan to solve the lead issue.

"We aren't making any effort to identify the source of lead, so we continue to poison kids," he said.

Final approval of mandatory lead testing for children is still needed from Allegheny County’s board and council. If approved, it would go into effect starting January 2018.

Cox Media Group