Dietrich on Panel That Developed Interventions for Lead-Poisoned Children

Kim Dietrich, PhD, a professor of epidemiology in the Department of Environmental Health, was one of 14 members of an expert panel that developed a newly released comprehensive plan for psychoeducational interventions for lead-poisoned children.

"Educational Interventions for Children Affected by Lead,” a 69-page report, was released May 5 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The expert panel comprised CDC and non-CDC authors, including Dietrich.

"My colleagues and I spent almost eight years on this document,” says Dietrich, a nationally known authority on lead poisoning and member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention from 2003 to 2012. "It’s the first ever to devise a comprehensive plan of psychoeducational interventions for lead-poisoned children and also outlines the latest findings from studies around the world on this toxicant.”

Dietrich and colleagues in the Department of Environmental Health and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center are collaborators on the effects of lead in the body through the Cincinnati Lead Study, a long-term prospective investigation of prenatal and postnatal lead exposure initiated in 1979. With continuous funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, it is the longest-running prospective study of the effects of lead on health and development in the world.

"Educational Interventions for Children Affected by Lead” details the significant negative consequences of lead on learning and educational attainment found in multiple studies and the costs associated with those consequences.

"Lead poisoning prevention has been correctly characterized as a U.S. public health success story due to the rapid and sustained decreases in the number of children affected by lead,” the report says. "But the rate of decrease in cases has slowed, and research shows that no safe blood level has been identified.”

According to the report, key ways that early care and educational systems can support improved outcomes for lead-exposed children include:

• Streamlined access to developmental assessment, intervention and special education services.

• Consistent interpretation of provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that require provision of assessment and educational interventions.

• Technical advice on the implications of the connection between lead exposure and educational results for educators, state and local governments, parents, pediatric health providers, lead poisoning prevention programs and others who work with young children.

"Although efforts continue to successfully shrink the incidence of lead poisoning, continued vigilance and collaboration are necessary to ensure that those children negatively affected by lead exposure receive services designed to compensate for lead’s effect on the brain and behavior of children,” the report says.