Milwaukee Health Dept. says kids should be tested for lead poisoning more often

Denise Morris was living with her grandchildren in a 1910-built house on the North Side of Milwaukee when she got a flyer in the mail. It was about Habitat for Humanity’s lead abatement house repair program.

To take advantage of the program, her grandchildren had to get blood tests to check for lead poisoning.

“Both my grandkids’ level were at 12 (micrograms per decileter), and that was high enough to where it could cause brain damage,” Morris said.

At levels of 3.5 micrograms, the Milwaukee Health Department connects families with caseworkers and nurses. At 10, it requires lead abatement repairs inside the home.

Contractors spent three months rehabbing Morris’ house. She also learned that eating foods rich in iron and calcium can reduce children’s blood lead level.

“I bet you they’re tired of anything green. I just introduced them to broccoli, and they love it with cheese now,” she said, adding that her grandchildren are at a “good level” of lead now.

On Wednesday, adding to existing state guidelines, Milwaukee’s Health Department started advising parents to get their kids’ blood lead level tested at 12, 18 and 24 months, and then annually through age 5.

“We have over 2,000 children a year that test positive in the city of Milwaukee, at 3.5 micrograms a deciliter and above,” said Tyler Weber, deputy commissioner of the department’s Environmental Health Division.

The CDC says that children under 6, as well as adult workers in certain fields, are more at-risk for lead poisoning. Living in a house built before 1978 — when lead paint was banned — increases risks as well.

On Thursday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced it was lowering the benchmark for the amount of lead in dust that’s allowable after abatement work — to 5 micrograms per square foot of flooring, 40 micrograms for windowsills, and 100 micrograms for window troughs. It also redefined a “hazardous” level of lead in dust as the minimum amount reliably measurable in an EPA laboratory, essentially tightening standards as much as possible.

Lead poisoning has different symptoms depending on age. Children with high levels of the toxin often develop more slowly or have trouble learning. Adults may experience pains, memory difficulty or high blood pressure.

According to the Milwaukee Health Department, lead abatement repairs come at no cost to residents, and blood tests are fully covered by most health insurance plans, including Medicaid. Weber said most families get tested with their primary care doctor.

“We can’t fully grasp the extent of the lead poisoning crisis in Milwaukee unless we’re getting more children tested,” he said.

Absentee landlords can be a stumbling block to abatement work

Federal funding has allowed Milwaukee to repair many owner-occupied houses at no cost to the homeowner.

But 80 percent of the families his department works with are renting their home, according to Weber.

“Some landlords are great to work with and some are very difficult,” he said.

“(Families) might have a landlord that’s out-of-state, an LLC that doesn’t respond, an absentee landlord,” said Michael Mannan, who runs the Health Department’s Home Environmental Health program.

He added that some landlords evict lead-positive tenants before rehab work can begin.

The Health Department orders landlords to hire lead abatement contractors within 30 days of notice. Depending on their incomes, landlords either have to pay out-of-pocket or apply for government grants with the department’s help.

Some landlords don’t comply at all — so the department has upped its “reinspection” fee for those property owners.

“We’ve escalated our enforcement strategy to try to go after those and target them,” Mannan said. “We certainly don’t want our federal funds, our HUD funds, our ARPA funds to go to those types of landlords that own multiple properties that poison multiple kids.”

Mannan said his office is working with the federal Department of Justice to begin criminally prosecuting noncompliant landlords next year.

Lead abatement a problem of scale

Around 200,000 houses in Milwaukee may contain lead paint.

“It’s really hard on low-income communities and communities of color,” Weber said, attributing the divide to historical redlining and segregation.

“We’re looking at hundreds of millions of dollars to actually scale it up and do all the homes,” Mannan said. That money primarily comes from the federal Department of Housing & Urban Development, plus American Rescue Plan Act appropriations.

It’s the federal funding that allowed abatement to start at blood measurements of 10 micrograms, per Mannan. That expires in 2026, meaning 15 micrograms may again be the benchmark for rehab work.

“Fifteen micrograms per deciliter — we’re literally telling people ‘Hey, we’re waiting for your brain to get damaged before we statutorily do a response’,” Mannan said.

He said that while there are enough certified contractors in the city, funding is still too scant to permanently lower the benchmark for abatement.

There is no safe blood lead level for children, according to the CDC.

The federal agency also says that, nationally, blood lead levels have been declining for the last few decades, attributing the trend to control efforts by governments, health care providers and local communities.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include new EPA standards for children exposed to lead paint dust.