Healthy Indoors Magazine - USA Edition

HI Jan 2017

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Healthy Indoors 21 tract or zip code. Epidemiologists say this ap- proach paints a more accurate picture. Nationally, lead levels among children have declined steadily over recent decades. In any given community, the rate of children who tested with high lead levels over the last decade in ag- gregate is usually higher than the rate in the most recent testing year, reflecting the larger trend. Though many of the troubled spots have seen some decline in lead poisoning rates over the period of analysis, they remain areas of concern with disproportionate risks. Most states provided data covering 2005 through 2015. Some could only provide five years' worth of data or fewer. The differences are noted on our interactive map. No child is counted more than once in the same year, but in a few states' data, a small num- ber of children could have been counted more than once over several years. In the data, some states counted only children whose test results were "confirmed," meaning blood was taken directly from a vein or that the child had two finger prick capillary tests over a short period that each came back high. Other states provided results for capillary tests that did not undergo a second test or finger prick. Rates can also be influenced by different policies on who is targeted for testing. For instance, pediatri- cians in some areas may only test the children they view as having the highest risk of poisoning. Off the Charts By M.B. Pell and Joshua Schneyer Data: M.B. Pell and Joshua Schneyer Graphics: Christine Chan and Charles Szymanski Design: Troy Dunkley Video: Chris Dignam and Mike Wood Edited by Ronnie Greene http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-re- port/usa-lead-testing/ For some locals, poisoning is a cost of living in this mining town. They use a colloquial term for the syndrome—getting leaded. "You can get very lead- ed," said Antonin Bohac, a mechanic at the nearby Brushy Creek Mine. "But I make good money." Bohac said he was nearly taken off the job a few years ago after he was poisoned himself - with a lead level four times higher than what fed- eral officials consider healthy for adults. How Reuters analyzed blood testing data Reuters obtained data from 21 states to identify neighborhoods where testing showed the highest rates of small children with elevated levels of lead in their blood. This data explored test results at the census tract or zip code level. Broader data surveys, such as the ones usually published by states or counties, cannot identify specific neighborhoods with a high rate of lead poisoning. The neighborhood-level testing results helped us pinpoint areas where lead exposure is a high risk. The data has limits, however: The picture it paints is not complete. Testing rates vary signifi- cantly by city and state, and millions of children go untested. Variances in data from states can make comparisons challenging. To identify high-risk areas, Reuters compared the rates of children who tested with high lead levels in each location to the rates in Flint, Mich- igan at the peak of that city's lead crisis in 2014- 2015. Reuters only included census tracts and zip codes where at least 100 children were tested over a multi-year period, as small sample sizes can distort the extent of the problem. Reuters defined elevated lead levels as any test result at or above 5 micrograms per deciliter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention threshold for an elevated test. The CDC lowered its threshold most recently in 2012 to reflect the medical consensus that even low levels of lead exposure can do permanent harm to children. Some states differ with the CDC in how they de- fine high blood lead levels or lead poisoning. At the neighborhood level, which often included only a small sampling of tested children, anomalies can cause an annual rate to spike or drop drastically. For that reason, Reuters combined data over a broad period, up to 11 years for each census

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