Lead Dust on Vehicle Safety Seats a Risk to Kids, Researchers Say

Lead dust and particles tracked into vehicles by parents who carry the toxic materials home from work can end up on a child safety seat and expose children to increased risks of brain and kidney damage and other severe complications, according to a new government study.

Six cases of child lead poisoning reported in Maine in 2008 have been linked to lead dust from vehicle safety seats, officials said. Maine health officials say parents who carried the material into cars on their clothes, tools, and other work items were to blame. The cases present a new risk of lead exposure, which can result in severe, permanent injuries in children.

Children can easily inhale or ingest microscopic lead particles by chewing on car seat cushions and develop reduced intelligence, impaired hearing, and other developmental complications, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, according to an Associated Press report.

“Kids chew on the sides of those seats … Or they put a cookie down” on the seat and then eat it, said Mary Jean Brown, chief of the CDC’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch.

Lead Use Reduced, But Injuries Continue

Lead was widely used for decades in paints and gasoline, but its use has since been limited. Lead was banned from paint in 1978, but tens of thousands of lead-exposure cases are still reported in the United States each year. By some estimates, as many as 240,000 American children suffer complications from lead poisoning, but many cases remain undiagnosed.

Children who are exposed to elevated levels of lead may suffer coma, convulsions, and even death. Even at reduced levels, exposure to lead has been shown to permanent and devastating learning disabilities and other complications in children.

Health authorities are cautioning parents who work in paint removal and other careers where they may be exposed to lead or lead dust to take extra precautions to prevent exposing children to the toxic material on their car seats. Showering before leaving work and driving home is the best way to reduce the risks of such lead exposure, officials said.

Most cases of childhood lead poisoning are reported in children who live in older homes where lead paint was used or where renovations have caused lead paint chips or dust to be cast into the air, where they can be inhaled or swallowed.

Researchers Studied Dozens of Cases

The CDC report identifies a new source of lead poisoning that has not been widely known before. Officials studied 66 cases of childhood lead poisoning that were reported in Maine last year. In six of the cases, there was no lead contamination detected in the child’s home.

The family vehicles were checked and researchers found high levels of lead on the seats and floors of the vehicles. In every case, the father or mother’s boyfriend in the family worked with metals recycling or paint removal, two common sources of lead exposure. The researchers concluded that the worker had tracked the lead into the vehicle from work, exposing others to the toxic metal in the vehicles.

In addition to working closely with lead-containing products, parking near worksites with the vehicle windows rolled down is another way lead dust and particles can land inside, exposing children, officials said.

The report was published this week in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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