Blood lead levels in Flint children were at a historic low in 2016, a full year after the city's water crisis, according to a new study from the University of Michigan published in "The Journal of Pediatrics."
According to the university, researchers analyzed lead concentrations fo 15,817 blood samples of Flint kids 5 years old and younger over an 11-year period.
The study did find that childhood blood lead levels had been dropping since 2006 but there were to spikes, including between 2014 and 2015 when lead contaminated the city's drinking water.
In the study, they found the blood lead levels went from 2.33 micrograms per deciliter in 2006 to 1.15 micrograms per deciliter in 2016. The study is the first to examine levels a year after the water crisis.
On top of that, the percentage of children with blood lead levels over 5 micrograms per deciliter dropped from 11.8 percent to 3.2 percent. The CDC recommends public health actions at 5 micrograms per liter.
“The Flint River water exposure particularly raised concerns about the potential health impact on children,” says lead author Hernan Gomez, M.D., a medical toxicologist and pediatrician at Michigan Medicine. “It’s unacceptable that any child was exposed to drinking water with elevated lead concentrations. There is no known safe blood level of lead, and the ultimate public health goal is for children to have zero amounts of lead in their system."
According to the study, blood lead levels that increased during the city's water crisis were not higher than levels found before 2013.
