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SALT LAKE CITY — Refugee children in Salt Lake County are more likely to experience lead exposure than their peers, according to data from the Salt Lake County Health Department.
The department observed that of the children who were referred to the department with high levels of lead in their blood, 74% were from refugee families. Children and pregnant women are at higher risk from lead poisoning, which can cause long-term neurological damage, learning disabilities, hearing problems and slowed growth and development.
"If a child is exposed to lead really early on, it can actually have permanent health effects," said Sarah Sederholm, a health educator with the county's Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.
Sederholm said the lead poisoning disparity among refugee families is tied to factors both in their home countries and here in Utah.
"It's not just, 'Oh, they were exposed in their home country and now they come here and the problem is over.' That's not the case," she said. "Quite a large majority of what we're seeing is these refugee families that (are exposed to lead) for various reasons — it could be exposure in their home country, it could be exposure here — but we are seeing that a lot."
Lead exposure outside the U.S. can occur due to less strict or absent laws surrounding things like lead-based paint, which was banned in the U.S. in 1978, or the common occurrence of lead bullets and lead dust in war zones. Once in the U.S., refugee families may also import items like cosmetics, candies and pottery with unsafe levels of lead. Along with low-income families, refugee families are more likely to live in older homes with lead-based paint. Parents who work in construction, manufacturing, mining and auto repair may also be exposed to lead through their work, thus putting them and their children at risk.
"We had a couple of families using kohl eyeliner on infants, and that has a pretty high level of lead. That's something a lot of people don't know about because it's something very culturally significant to the people using it," Sederholm said. "I don't think there's a lot of awareness that there's sometimes lead in that and it can be very dangerous."
Reducing lead exposure
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children be tested for lead exposure at the ages of 1 and 2; those who miss those tests can still be tested up to the age of 6. Refugee children are also tested upon their arrival to the U.S.
"If you do see symptoms, it tends to be like a headache or a stomachache or just generally not feeling very well," Sederholm said. "But that is the tricky thing. You often don't see a lot of those physical symptoms, and then later down the road you're seeing some learning disabilities and some neurological damage."
Sederholm said one of the best ways to address lead exposure is by removing the toxin from the child's environment. The county offers two programs to protect residents. The Lead Safe Housing Program provides free lead testing and home remediation to those who live in homes built before 1978 and meet income requirements, and the Lead Home Visiting Program provides education on how to reduce children's lead exposure for families who have children with an elevated blood lead level.
"These resources are free. They're awesome. They are very inclusive," Sederholm said.
More information about the Lead Safe Housing Program is available on the county's website or at 385-315-0049.
Correction: A previous version incorrectly referred to "kohl eyeliner" as "coal eyeliner."
