Department of Health

Oversight of the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (Follow-Up Report)

The Department of Health is responsible for establishing and coordinating activities to prevent lead poisoning and to minimize the risk of exposure to lead. Specifically, the Department is required to promulgate and enforce regulations for screening children and pregnant women and to follow up on those with elevated blood lead levels; coordinate lead poisoning prevention with other federal, State, and local agencies; and establish a statewide registry of children with elevated blood lead levels. In audit 2004-S-49, we examined the actions taken by the Department in fulfilling these responsibilities and found that certain improvements were needed. For example, additional actions were needed to ensure that all children were screened for lead poisoning, as required. In addition, the screening rates reported by the Department were overstated and the Department needed to more closely monitor the lead poisoning prevention efforts of county health departments. When we followed up on these matters with Department officials, we found that they had made significant progress in their implementation of our audit recommendations.

For a complete copy of Report 2008-F-31 click here.
For a copy of the 30-day response click here.