NEW HAVEN -- Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro along with advocates and local health leaders in the New Haven area came together Wednesday to discuss the health effects of lead exposure to young children.
“It’s a public health crisis, it is across the country and including in our own state,” Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said.
Experts said it is especially important to raise awareness around testing young children for lead at this time of year because as the weather improves, children tend to play more outside, potentially increasing their exposure to lead in the soil around their homes. In addition, home renovations are more common in the spring and summer, increasing the potential for children to be exposed to lead.
“Many of these houses are at least a 100-years-old or more. There is old paint there and there is old dusts and the dust just doesn’t wash away,” Attending Physician at Yale-New Haven hospital, Dr. Carl Baum said.
Advocates said while most parents and physician are good about testing for lead exposure when children are babies, only half get the second round of testing when they are toddlers.
“Children are very active at two years of age, the terrible twos, the toddlers they get into everything and we really need to make sure those children are checked as well,” Baum said.
