Quest Test Data Fuels the Public Dialogue on Unsafe Blood-Lead Levels

In the Flint, Michigan water contamination crisis, contaminated drinking water caused elevated blood-lead levels in the city’s children. Other communities have identified lead issues as well.  Because of these public health outcries, blood-lead levels in children have resurfaced as part of the national dialogue on public health and safety.Pediatric lead levels have fallen for four decades after we eliminated lead in automobile gasoline and paint in homes.  To evaluate where we stand,  Quest Diagnostics conducted a six-year study “Blood Lead Levels in Young Children: US, 2009-2015," which was published in The Journal of Pediatrics and analyzed more than 5 million blood test results of children across the entire country to determine blood-lead rates and trends.The Quest Diagnostics Health Trends™ study found that the number of children with high blood-lead levels declined from 3.67% to 2.59%. However, there is no level of lead in the blood that is acceptable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even modest lead exposure in children can create neurological and other health problems, including lowered IQ.Quest is committed to deriving clinically significant insights from its diagnostic testing to enable public health, policy makers and healthcare practitioners to take actions to improve the health care of Americans. To see how these data are being used around the country to educate the public and influence public health decisions, check out some select media coverage of the study below:

1. CDC Confirms Lead Levels Shot Up in Flint Kids After Water Switch: NBC News, June 2016
2. Pediatricians: U.S. Not Doing Enough to Halt Childhood Lead Poisoning: USA Today, June 2016
3. Lead: Not Just an Issue in Flint: Contemporary Pediatrics, July 2016