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Lakeland Builders Association workshop focuses on lead safety

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On Jan. 4, the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention recommended that the amount of lead in a child's blood that determines dangerous lead exposure should be cut in half, from the current standard of 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood to 5 micrograms for ages 5 and below.

LAKE GENEVA — As a parent, you worry about your children’s health; you make sure they eat right and get the proper vacinations. You want them to grow up healthy and strong, able to take on any challenge, so you send them to the best schools and get extra tutoring when needed. You limit the time they spend playing electronic games and watching television, hoping to promote more cerebral activities, but unless you limit your child’s exposure to lead, all of this worrying and doing may be for naught.

(Read all of this week's stories from Walworth County Sunday HERE. )

It doesn’t take much lead to ruin a child’s brain, according to a federal advisory committee. On Jan. 4, the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, recommended that the amount of lead in a child’s blood that determines dangerous lead exposure should be cut in half, from the current standard of 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood to 5 micrograms for ages 5 and below.

According to Lead-Safe Wisconsin, of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which administers the enforcement of lead removal, lead exposure in young children can cause reduced IQ and attention span, learning disabilities, developmental delays, and a range of other health and behavioral effects. Prevention of lead poisoning can be accomplished by eliminating lead-based paint hazards before children are exposed. Wisconsin's goal is to eliminate this disease by working to make Wisconsin's housing lead-safe, and by improving the detection and treatment of lead poisoning in children.

Since 1988, federal law has mandated efforts to remove lead from housing, but still, an estimated 250,000 children have blood levels exceeding the 10 microgram level. Public health advocates have been pushing to lower that number for years, arguing that exposure to even tiny amounts of lead causes problems that can persist through life. More than 2.5 percent of Wisconsin children under the age of 2 years have lead poisoning, a number that is twice the national average.

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Upcoming workshop

The LBA will offer a "Lead Safe Renovator Training" workshop March 18. For more information or to register, call (262) 723-2908 or e-mail info@lakelandba.com..