Deputy Director National Center for Healthy Housing Columbia, Maryland
There has been little research on childhood lead exposure pathways since the 1990s. Collaborating with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the National Center for Healthy Housing obtained data from 2017–2021 for 429 children in 345 homes, including blood, paint, dust, soil, water, other housing, demographic, and behavioral metrics. Exposure was directly predicted by lead in settled floor house dust, child’s age, season, and mouthing behavior and indirectly predicted by window sill and trough dust lead, bare soil lead, carpets, and exterior deteriorations. Paint lead was also an indirect predictor of blood through the soil and settled dust pathways. In order to collect the necessary data, the State implemented new questions regarding a child's water consumption and soil to its environmental protocols and included updating and providing reporting tools/templates, and training, This study shows that the main direct and indirect pathways of lead exposure for most children in older housing remain paint and the contaminated dust and soil it generates. Lead in dust, soil, and paint all should be measured to predict risk and target remediation. Because most homes still have not been assessed for lead exposures and remediated, too many children remain at needless risk.
