State fighting requirement to test all poor children for lead

SEATTLE — If Washington state gets its way, nearly 325,000 of the state's poorest children might never know if their bodies have high levels of lead.

Do you have any idea of how many kids we're talking about would be affected? Amy Crewdson, a lawyer with Columbia Legal Services in Olympia, was asked.

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"No, we don't have it," she replied. "Again, it's the problem of not having any data."

We put that question to Crewdson. Her agency is asking the feds to force the state to test all young children on Medicaid to determine if they have had too much lead.

"Since the state has never enforced the mandatory lead level testing requirement from federal law, we don't know if we have a widespread problem because we don't have any data," Crewdson said.

"There really haven't been large numbers of kids with elevated lead levels in Washington over time."

So says Dr. Charissa Fotinos, the deputy medical director for the state Health Care Authority, which administers the Medicaid program.

She insists the state believes only children at highest risk need to be tested. As for all Medicaid children?

"Could we do that?" asked Dr. Fotinos. "Not with our current resources."

What resources are you talking about? Are you talking about money? she was asked.

"People, largely," she said.

It's having the people to actually do the work? she was asked.

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"Correct," she said.

Crewdson says that isn't good enough.

"It's simply not scientific to claim that there is no problem in Washington without any data to back that up," said Crewdson.

Dr. Fotinos says every child who goes to Head Start is tested for lead.

And she says any health care provider who believes a child should be tested can still do it and get reimbursed.

Both sides in this debate are waiting for the feds to make a decision.

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