Children's Health

Government Starts Probe of Hopkins Lead Paint Study

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency originally funded the lead cleanup research for $200,000 in hopes of finding cheaper ways of reducing lead in house dust. Yet the problem persists.

Nationally, it's believed that lead poisoning afflicts as many as 900,000 children, leaving them with learning disabilities and other mental problems. Experts say, however, that the situation could be corrected by making homes lead-safe. And that is a relatively inexpensive proposition, says Jerome Paulson, MD, associate professor of health care sciences and pediatrics at The George Washington University Medical Center.

"It's where public policy should go in the United States if we are ever going to end the problem of lead-poisoned kids," Paulson tells WebMD. "If we continue to just screen kids, and therefore identify them once they have become poisoned, then we're never really going to get rid of this problem."