To Save America’s Children: Why the Nation Needs the CDC Lead Poisoning Prevention Program
by Dr. David Jacobs
David Jacobs, PhD, CIH, served as the director of HUD’s lead poisoning prevention program from 1995 to 2004.
There are some things that all Americans agree on, even in our times of strife. One of those is the importance of building a brighter future: That means our children and those generations that follow have the ability to conquer new and unexpected challenges, to fix the problems our predecessors could not, and to dream of a new and better world for future generations and ultimately make it happen.
That bipartisan agreement means children must not be lead poisoned. If they are, they cannot build that better world, they cannot learn, they cannot decide properly, and they cannot make important, smart choices. This seems so obvious that at first, I didn’t think I should waste your time with it. But now that we’re being confronted with the administration’s latest decision to wipe out the CDC lead poisoning prevention program, it becomes even more necessary to state what unites us, not what divides us—that means protecting our kids and our future.
If any of us saw a truck coming down the road and a child in harm’s way, we would jump to save that kid. That’s exactly what we did together as a country when we created CDC’s lead poisoning prevention program. Lead poisoning was that truck, and we took action together to stop it by insisting that our government (and many others like lead paint companies) do the right thing.
The results are spectacular, if unfinished. Blood lead levels have declined by over 93% since the ‘70s when CDC first started counting the number of lead-poisoned children. It is CDC that runs the nation’s lead poisoning surveillance by funding local health professionals to provide and analyze data to make sure we know what’s going on and where the problems are most severe. CDC runs the only nationwide estimates of lead poisoning.
CDC’s estimates ensure that HUD’s corrective measures are targeted to the houses with lead paint hazards and locales where remediation is needed most. That’s exactly why the EPA efforts to remove lead from gasoline worked so well. That’s why the FDA’s removal of lead from baby formula canning (and other canning) worked so well. That’s why the removal of lead drinking water pipes is so important. And that’s why OSHA and NIOSH’s work to protect workers in lead industries and construction remains important: so they don’t poison themselves and their families.
In short, that’s exactly why the CDC program must not be ended. If we don’t know where the problem is, we cannot fix it.
I have met parents and their children, landlords, homeowners, tenants, doctors and other health providers, and local, state, and federal lead poisoning prevention professionals across the country. They all report the same thing—we know how to fix this, and we need help to make it happen.
Every mom and dad of a lead-poisoned child knows that the problem remains. We still have over half a million children with elevated blood lead levels every year, and we still have over 23 million homes with lead paint hazards. Why on earth would anyone think that eliminating this CDC staff and program produces “efficiency”? Sure, certain reforms are needed, and I published some recommendations years ago, together with the previous CDC lead poisoning prevention program director.
Wiping out the CDC lead poisoning prevention program by eliminating talented staff is not about “reform,” and it won’t make anything more efficient. But it will harm our children.
Protecting children is the decent thing to do. To those proposing the elimination of the CDC lead poisoning prevention program, I ask the same question posed in the 1950s when other politicians were going way too far: “Have you no decency, sir?”
These views are solely those of the author. Read the statement from the National Center for Healthy Housing here.
The history of the nation’s past half-century efforts on lead poisoning prevention is described in Dr. Jacobs’ book, Fifty Years of Peeling Away the Lead Paint Problem: Saving Our Children’s Future with Healthy Housing. First Edition published September 24, 2022, by Elsevier Academic Press. Available here in paperback (ISBN: 9780443187360) and as an e-book (ISBN: 9780443187377).
Dr. David Jacobs, PhD, CIH, former director of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is the chief scientist for the National Center for Healthy Housing and an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.