How Effective Are Secondary Interventions at Improving Health Outcomes in Children Exposed to Lead in Early Childhood?

Abstract

Preventing childhood lead exposure has been at the forefront of environmental and public health policy in the United States for decades. When prevention fails and children are exposed to lead, secondary interventions are often used to mitigate the adverse effects. We review the literature on the effectiveness of secondary interventions used to treat children with elevated blood lead levels (BLLs). We find that the literature is dominated by null and inconclusive findings about the effectiveness of secondary interventions on children’s BLLs. Furthermore, few studies examine the effects of these interventions on the cognitive, behavioral, and other health outcomes that are the hallmarks of children’s lead exposure and result in long-term labor market and economic consequences. This means that surprisingly little is known about whether secondary interventions mitigate or reverse the damage to children exposed to lead.