Universal lead testing requirement landmark moment for Michigan, advocates say

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Tuesday that requires all 1- and 2-year-olds in Michigan to be tested for lead exposure, something advocates say is the biggest moment in 45 years to end lead poisoning.

"In Michigan, we know the importance of safe drinking water and the devastating, long-lasting impacts of lead exposure," Whitmer said in a statement. "With our historic investments in water infrastructure over the last five years, our work to replace tens of thousands of lead service lines, and today’s bills to test children for lead exposure, we will protect our water and our children. Together, we will make Michigan a safer, healthier state to grow up."

Currently, children enrolled in Medicaid must undergo testing for lead poisoning. But beginning next year, physicians treating any minor must test the minor for lead poisoning or order a lead poisoning test at 12 and 24 months. If they have no record of a previous test, they must be tested between 24 and 72 months. All four year-olds in Michigan must be tested if they live in a part of the state where they face increased risk for childhood lead poisoning. Minors must also be tested at regular intervals if they face high risk for lead poisoning such as living in a home built before 1978 or living with other minors diagnosed with lead poisoning.

Senate Bill 31 signed by Whitmer would allow these testing requirements to be eliminated if the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reviews lead poisoning data for five years and finds that testing minors is no longer necessary. In the meantime, House Bill 4200 signed into law would create space on a child's immunization certificate to indicate whether the minor has undergone a lead poisoning test.

"Lead poisoning poses a serious health risk to kids not only in Flint, but across Michigan," said bill sponsor state Sen. John Cherry, D-Flint, in a statement. "This legislation, which ensures access to lead testing for all children, regardless of their insurance coverage, will help parents identify early on if their children have been exposed to lead. This way, they can ensure their kids receive the treatment they need to live a happy, healthy and full life."

"I'm ecstatic, I'm so thankful," said TaNiccia Henry, co-leader of the Detroit Lead Advocacy Parent Group, whose grandson was lead-poisoned in her home. "If it saves one child, that's everything in the world. If it stops children from growing up and having physical or mental disorders, then I feel like we won the mega-millions, we won the jackpot."

Lead exposure is especially dangerous for infants, babies and kids

Lead exposure can be extremely dangerous, especially for babies and children, who can be harmed even before birth. It can damage their nervous system, brain and other organs and lead to severe health, learning and behavioral problems that can be sudden and long-lasting.

Lead can enter the body if it's ingested in drinking water, but also if it's touched or inhaled. Lead-based paint in homes built before 1978, when lead was banned in paint, are especially prevalent in older cities including Detroit, where 70% of the housing stock was built before the law was enacted.

In those homes, cracking or peeling paint releases microscopic particles into the air, coating everything in the house with a pernicious, invisible layer of lead dust. A touch, a taste, could harm.

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No amount of lead is safe for children

Rates of lead poisoning have fallen in the last 20 years after advocates began calling for lawmakers and elected leaders to pay attention to lead's effects on children's health. Still, around 4,000 children in Michigan are diagnosed with lead poisoning every year – a number advocates say is likely an undercount.

And testing rates in Michigan have been low. Around 40% or less of Detroit kids are tested in any given year, according to Mary Sue Schottenfels, who works with the Detroit Lead Parent Advocacy Group and is also a lead strategic consultant at the Ecology Center.

Just 14% of Michigan children under the age of 6 had a blood test in 2021 according to state data, a rate that may have been driven down by the barriers to testing during the pandemic. Of those tested, 3.5% of them – or 3,401 children – had levels of lead in their blood above 3.5 micrograms per deciliter, the reference value used by the Centers for Disease Control.

No amount of lead is considered safe.

"Knowing that we have so many old houses in the state, and the legacy pollution issue, we know that there are children who have elevated blood lead levels who aren't being tested," said Ellen Vial, Detroit program manager for the Michigan Environmental Council, which convenes the Michigan Alliance for Lead Safe Homes. "It was really vital to this coalition that we expand blood testing to all children in the state to make sure that we are testing them super early and can identify that exposure point and keep them away from that exposure point and remediate the issue."

A history of lead poisoning

Lead poisoning has become quite literally a household issue in several Michigan cities. The Flint water crisis caused elevated blood lead levels in children there to double or, in some neighborhoods, even triple after authorities switched the city water source, did not properly treat the water with corrosion control and failed to respond quickly to contamination concerns.

The state of Michigan and other parties eventually came to a settlement of over $626 million in the poisoning of Flint's water – one of the largest civil settlements in state history. Criminal charges were levied against 15 people including former health department director Nick Lyon, chief medical executive Dr. Eden Wells and Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley, though charges against them were eventually dismissed.

In 2017, health authorities identified a potential link between Detroit’s high number of demolitions and elevated blood lead levels of children who lived nearby. The city announced it would halt non-emergency demolitions in five of the most at-risk zip codes, but a Free Press investigation found it didn't.

The next year, Detroit Public Schools Community District temporarily shut off water to 106 buildings after elevated levels of lead were detected in dozens of schools.

On Sept. 28, a federal judge dismissed state officials from a lawsuit that alleged they had a role in lead leaching into Benton Harbor's drinking water. Tests of that city's water system showed residents received water with elevated lead levels for three years in a row.

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Universal lead testing will empower parents to act

Despite the prolific impact of lead poisoning, parents and even pediatricians remain uneducated about the need for universal testing.

"Because lead poisoning is not visible, it's really hard for parents to prioritize it," Schottenfels said. "I mean, there's many more issues right in front of their faces that are extremely challenging."

Universal testing will ensure parents have the information they need about whether their child had been recently exposed to lead and what they can do to mitigate the effects of that exposure. Specific approaches to housecleaning and nutrition can help.

"Lead poisoning is something you can kind of put on the side unless your child gets tested, and then it impacts you directly," Schottenfels said. "And so that's why the law is so important. It gives all parents information that they need to know to make an informed decision…"

'One of the most important and solvable problems we've got'

With the signing of lead testing legislation, Vial says the work begins of actually implementing the change. "We've got to communicate this out to health departments, we've got to communicate this out to doctors' offices, and we've got to communicate this out to parents, (who are) especially poised to make sure that their kids can get this lead test," she said.

Vial said getting to universal testing wouldn't happen overnight, but that a broad network of advocates across the state remains committed to helping families get tested and get resources.

They also say more money is needed for abatement efforts, contractors need better training, property managers and landlords need to be held accountable for having lead-safe rental units and parents and providers still need more education to boost awareness about lead poisoning.

But those who championed the lead testing legislation hope the victory translates into wins on other laws. They're committed to the fight for the long run.

"I believe that this is one of the most important and solvable problems we've got in the city and in the country," said Schottenfels. "We're determined to stick with it until all avenues have been pursued, and there's no more lead poisoning in the country. And that is our ultimate goal."

In addition to the legislation Whitmer signed Tuesday, lawmakers have taken up other bills to require Michigan schools and child care facilities to install water filtration systems and test them to prevent lead exposure. The Michigan Senate passed the legislation. It now awaits a vote in the state House.

Jennifer Brookland covers child welfare for the Detroit Free Press in partnership with Report for America. Reach her at jbrookland@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New law will have every Michigan toddler tested for lead poisoning