Pritzker declares Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week

Gov. JB Pritzker declared this week, Oct. 22 through 28, as Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, advocating to reduce lead exposure in children.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, low levels of lead in a child’s blood may impact their intelligence, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. There is no safe level of lead in the blood, and exposure that leads to elevated blood lead levels occur when a person touches, swallows or breaths lead or lead dust.

Because symptoms of lead exposure are not immediately visible, children younger than six in Illinois are required to be evaluated for lead exposure by their physician. Public health intervention is required when a child under the age of six has five micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood.

More than 3,070 Illinois children were found to have elevated blood lead levels in 2022, according to an Illinois Department of Public Health news release, but state officials said lead exposure testing in Illinois youth declined 3% from 2021 to last year.

That’s why the governor and Dr. Sameer Vohra, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, are trying to encourage parents to have their children evaluated for lead exposure.

To help communities clean up lead exposure problems the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has given millions of dollars to Illinois municipalities looking to remove lead service lines that might have exposed thousands of Illinoisans through lead in tap and bath water.

Sycamore, a city that settled a $6 million class action law suite over water quality earlier this year, has received multiple rounds of funding from the IEPA, and is in the process of identifying and replacing lead service lines in the community at no cost to the home owner. The lawsuit drew attention to multiple lead tests conducted on Sycamore city homes since 2020 which showed some homes had elevated levels of lead beyond the legal limit set by the EPA. No amount of lead exposure or consumption is safe, however, according to the CDC.

However, some Sycamore residents have continued to raise concerns about the quality of their tap water in their homes, and they have set up a website to continue to lobby for better water quality.

Sycamore isn’t alone in addressing its lead water service lines.

Genoa sought resident participation last summer when creating its own inventory of service line materials, as did the city of DeKalb. The Illinois Lead Service Line Notification and Replacement act, which went into effect Aug. 30, 2021, requires Illinois water systems to begin removal of lead service lines no later than Jan. 1, 2027.

The state bill isn’t the only initiative out of Springfield aimed at preventing lead exposure. The Comprehensive Lead Education, Reduction and Window Replacement (CLEAR-Win) program, from the Illinois Department of Public Health, will help low-income residential property owners replace their windows to reduce lead paint exposure.