Lead poisoning clinic

Jennifer Corn of Springfield was told her home was safe from lead, so she assumed that her children would be safe from lead poisoning. She was wrong.

All four of her children had problems with lead poisoning, but her youngest son, Danny Estep, 7, developed the worst case of lead poisoning of them all.

As reported in the Regional Pediatric Health Assessment, more than one out of five area parents live in homes that they say were built in or before 1950, putting their children at higher risk of exposure to lead-based paints. In addition, only 30.7 percent of area children younger than 7 years have been tested for lead poisoning.

The Lead Poisoning Clinic receives referrals from other agencies as well as physicians seeing children with high lead levels. A pediatrician specializing in lead poisoning, a trained LP nurse and a social worker staffs the clinic. The clinic coordinates with the Ohio Department of Health Lead Poisoning Prevention Program for home and environmental assessment for lead, and parent education.

In the last two years, 155 visits were made to the Children’s Health Clinic by children with elevated lead levels.