Last Updated: April 2017

Author: Healthy Homes Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, Vermont Department of Health

Testing young children for lead in blood is a critical step in the process of reducing the incidence of elevated blood lead levels. A child's exposure to lead can easily be identified through testing, and appropriate interventions can be initiated to prevent further exposure to this harmful toxin. In addition, testing helps inform the development of lead poisoning prevention policies by giving the Department of Health the opportunity to track statewide trends in childhood exposure to lead.

The Healthy Homes Lead Poisoning Prevention Program continues to work toward the goal of universal testing of 1- and 2-year-old children in Vermont. This graph presents the percent of 2-year olds who were tested for blood lead levels.

For 2-year olds, the trend jumped more than 20% between 2006 and 2009 from 43.6% to 64.4% and has remained at about that level until increasing in 2012.The goal for 2-year olds is 100%, so the Program will continue to work with key stakeholders to emphasize the need to increase screening of the 2-year-old population.

The Healthy Homes Lead Poisoning Prevention Program compiles annual data for the previous year in April. This means that 2016 data become available in April 2017.

The Healthy Homes Lead Poisoning Prevention Program has multiple partners in the effort to have all children tested for lead at age 1 and again at age 2. The Maternal Child Health Division of the Health Department includes several programs important to lead poisoning prevention and testing: Children with Special Health Needs; Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT); and Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The Program also works very closely with Vermont chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians, Blueprint for Health, the Vermont Department of Health Laboratory, and the Vermont Child Health Improvement Project (VCHIP).

What works is having a strong set of partners and a broad educational campaign aimed at providers and families. The Healthy Homes Lead Poisoning Prevention Program conducts a variety of lead education and outreach activities targeted to multiple audiences and designed to prevent lead poisoning, encourage lead testing of 1- and 2-year-old children, and support case management for children with elevated blood lead levels.

The Healthy Homes Lead Poisoning Prevention Program will continue to focus on working with health care providers to increase the lead testing rates by providing them with timely data, supporting them as they do medical case management, and continuing with back-up testing for WIC clients at the local offices when providers fail to test. The Program will continue encouraging families to test their children for lead through mailings, community partners and targeted messaging.