Despite clear science and proven solutions, childhood lead poisoning has persisted due to enforcement gaps, fragmented policy and political inaction. Courtesy Pure Earth

There are few public health issues in the United States where the science is so settled, the solutions so clear and the stakes so high, yet the outcome remains so unresolved. Childhood lead poisoning is one of them. Often described as a “solved problem,” lead exposure has, in reality, never been fully resolved. It has rather been pushed out of sight, relegated to communities with the least political power and treated as an acceptable background risk of aging infrastructure.

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The data tell a story of both progress and failure. Nationally, childhood blood lead levels have declined dramatically since the 1970s, largely due to the removal of lead from gasoline, paint, and plumbing. But decline is not elimination. According to the CDC’s Childhood Blood Lead Surveillance system, which processes roughly three million blood lead tests annually, about 2.5 percent of U.S. children ages one to five still have blood lead levels at or above 3.5 micrograms per deciliter, the CDC’s current reference value. That translates to roughly half a million children every year whose exposure is already associated with measurable harm. Even those figures likely understate the true burden, given uneven testing, inconsistent reporting and persistent surveillance gaps.

“Problems that disproportionately impact people without power are often deemed ‘solved’ or at least ‘under control’ by those in power,” says Peggy Shepard, co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. “This is certainly the case with childhood lead poisoning.” 

A public health issue we know how to solve

What makes lead poisoning particularly damning as a policy failure is that it is, by definition, preventable. Unlike many complex health crises, lead exposure does not depend on uncertain causation or emerging science. As Dr. Debra........

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