
A Maine legislative committee voted unanimously to endorse a bill requiring all young children in Maine to be screened for lead poisoning, the Portland Press Herald reports. Maine is currently the only state in the New England region that does not require a universal blood test for lead in infants.
Under current law, any child who is in the state’s Medicaid program must have their blood tested for elevated lead levels at ages 1 and 2. While many pediatricians routinely test all children, only children on private insurance who are deemed to be at risk of lead exposure must be tested.
The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee voted to endorse a bill that would establish a universal blood test for lead for all 1- and 2-year-olds. Maine is the only northeastern state that doesn’t require testing of all 1- and 2-year-olds, despite the fact that the risk exposure is likely higher in Maine because the state has the nation’s oldest housing stock.
The endorsed bill originally also proposed doubling the per-gallon fee on paint to pay for home inspections and lead abatement measures. The language was removed, however, because the state's new budget set aside additional funding for those programs. The legislation comes on the heels of a recent report from the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition that found 1,800 children in Maine were poisoned by lead in the past five years, and an additional 850 kids were likely poisoned but not identified.
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