Get the Lead Out: Illinois Childhood Lead Poisoning Surveillance Report, 2001.

In order to highlight the importance of identifying children with elevated blood lead levels, the Illinois Department of Public Health produces its surveillance report to present state and county level data on the number of children screened for and identified with lead poisoning. In Illinois, all children between 6 and 84 months of age must be assessed for lead poisoning at least once before entering a licensed day care center, preschool, or kindergarten. Noting that a proposed lower standard for lead poisoning would mean that more than 36 percent of tested children in 2001 were lead-poisoned, this report provides information from 2000 and 2001 on screening tests conducted on children 15 years and younger, with almost all data from children 6 years and younger. The report indicates that 7.3 percent of children had at least 1 blood lead test result greater than or equal to 10 mcg/dL. Children living in high-risk ZIP code areas were more likely to be lead poisoned than children living in low-risk ZIP code areas. African-American and Hispanic children were more likely to be affected by lead poisoning than Caucasian children, with most of the ethnic differences attributed to living in the older housing of high-risk ZIP code areas. Presented in tabular form is information for each Illinois county on the number of children 6 years and under, and 2000 and 2001 information on the number of children tested and the number identified with various blood lead levels; a comparison of Chicago and downstate data is included. Also included in the report is a copy of the Childhood Lead Risk Assessment Questionnaire as well as information on the age at which children should be screened and the importance of screening in high-risk areas. The report concludes with a list of organization sources for information about lead poisoning prevention (KB)