Manalapan Clarifies Lead Poisoning Statistics

From David Richardson, Manalpan, health officer:

On December 4, 2015 The Manalapan Patch posted an article entitled, Manalapan Among N.J. Towns With Most Kids Sick With Lead Poisoning. I wish to correct some inaccuracies portrayed in that article. The inaccuracies are primarily tracked back to the author mis-characterizing the data. The article closed with two (2) very long lists of NJ towns which were described as “the N.J. towns with the most reported cases of lead poisoning”. There were 2 lists for 2 different age groups. The towns mentioned in the lists were largely the same. Manalapan was on each list with 175 children in the ages 6 to 26 month list and 297 children in the under age 6 age group. As a matter of background, NJ requires all children be tested for lead by age 12 and 24 months and if older than three (3) years of age they must be tested at least once by their sixth birthday if they were not screened at age one and two years. The way Patch characterized these lists suggests that this was the number of children in Manalapan suffering from lead poisoning. This was a total misinterpretation of the numbers. The lists were taken from the State of New Jersey’s Childhood Lead Poisoning in New Jersey Fiscal Year 2014 Annual Report. A correct reading of these two (2) lists would be that these numbers represent the total number of children residing in Manalapan that were screened for the presence of lead – not numbers of children with lead poisoning. Please note that during the time period in this report there wereno children 6 months – 26 months of age found to have lead in their bloodstream requiring further evaluation and action and only 1 child up to 6 years of age with lead in the bloodstream requiring further evaluation and action. The source of the lead in the one case was determined by the Manalapan Health Department to be from toys which were made outside of the country. When these toys were removed from the house the child’s lead burden fell to acceptable levels.

The Manalapan Township Health Department and Board of Health take their responsibilities to protect the health of the community very seriously, including protecting children from lead poisoning. For more information about lead or any other public health topic please feel free to contact the Health Department.