Several counties in Indiana appear to have no cases of lead poisoning. How do we know whether they have no problems or they simply have not done the blood lead tests to find out? We don’t.

Other counties have many lead-poisoned children. As a result, they have begun strong educational programs. If the numbers drop, how do we know if they are having an impact or that testing rates have dropped? Or if numbers go up, could it be simply because more testing is happening? We don’t know in either situation.

Currently, private labs do not have to report the results of any blood lead tests. As a result, we work in the dark with only half the story. That is dangerous!

The Indiana State Department of Health has proposed a rule that will require private labs to report positive venous blood lead tests. Capillary tests and negative tests would go unreported. We will end up with more information but not enough to take a valid shot at answering the questions raised above.

On March 8, Erin Gaughan testified before the ISDH Executive Committee on behalf of IKE asking that ISDH amend its proposed rule to require reporting by laboratories of all blood lead tests — including negative results and capillary tests. Dave McCormick of Marion County Health Dept. spoke for the amendment with the support Allen County/Ft. Wayne Health Department, HealthVisions and other health departments.

As a result of the comments, the Committee tabled the proposal until its May 10 meeting. Please voice your comments to ISDH before then or at the hearing.

A possible compromise being discussed is to have the private labs report total negatives but that raises many unanswered questions.