Milwaukee students get tested for lead poisoning

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Just days after President Joe Biden referenced urgent lead concerns in his State of the Union address, health care leaders in Milwaukee are highlighting the issue here.

No amount of lead in the body is safe, according to Milwaukee health officials, and while children are most at risk, less than 50% of them get tested for lead poisoning.

Thursday, students part of Milwaukee's Head Start and Next Door Foundation programs were tested for lead. Next Door provides early childhood education to more than 1,000 Milwaukee families. Many of those families live in neighborhoods identified as high-risk for lead exposure.

Next Door hopes that by offering lead testing in school, it will help remove barriers putting so many children at risk.

"We have a lot of lead in the city, and we have to work together to really remove as much lead as we can," said Tyler Weber, interim health commissioner, Milwaukee Health Dept.

Lead was widely used in water and connecting copper piping until the 1980s.

The remnants can flake into drinking water, damaging a child's growth.