What are your health-related resolutions? The Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program’s New Year’s Resolution is to increase blood lead testing among Arizona’s most at-risk children. Children exposed to lead may not have any signs or symptoms but experience serious and permanent developmental and learning problems.
The Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program released their 2018 Targeted Lead Screening Plan this week to help achieve this goal.The targeted lead screening plan is updated periodically to identify areas across the state that have a higher risk of lead poisoning. All children in Arizona should be evaluated for lead poisoning at 12 and 24 months of age. This entails a blood lead test for children living in high-risk areas and a parent questionnaire for children not living in high-risk areas.
New to this year’s plan is an interactive, web-based lead risk map. Parents and health care providers can enter a child’s full address in the map to determine whether the child needs a blood lead test. A list of high-risk zip codes was also created as an alternative resource when the lead risk map is not feasible for use.
Help us achieve our goal by making sure all children are screened for lead!
