Why Prevention is Important
The benefits to lead exposure prevention are not only the health and wellbeing of youth, but cost savings. Prevention is always the best option, as it is less expensive to prevent lead exposure, than it is to treat lead exposure. According to the study, Childhood Lead Poisoning: Conservative Estimates of the Social and Economic Benefits of Lead Hazard Control, “Assuming average medical treatment costs per child of $565 for drug and counseling therapy and average parental work loss costs of $119 per child, lead exposure costs $267 million annually to individual families and society.”
This is compared to the cost of repainting a home, testing water and soil, or other services that may be needed to clean a home of lead. Preventing lead exposure extends into hobbies, hygiene, and daily cleaning routines.
Did you know:
In the State of New Hampshire it is required that all children ages 1 and 2 years must get their blood lead levels tested. This is also required to be covered by insurance providers, meaning the cost of the blood test will not be billed to the patient’s family and is 100% covered by insurance companies.
