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Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home and Boys Town Pediatrics Developing Model Program for Lead Poisoning
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home in Omaha, Nebraska for a Targeted Lead Grant.
The $99,244 grant project is to design, pilot, and disseminate a physician’s lead screening protocol within Boys Town Pediatrics in Omaha to improve testing rates and identification of cases of childhood lead poisoning. The protocol would be disseminated to all nine Boys Town clinics and later to pediatricians across the country.
“Lead poisoning has mainly been a concern among children from low income families who live in inadequate housing,” said Thomas F. Tonniges, M.D., Director of the Boys Town Institute for Child Health Improvement. “Today, we know that even very low levels of lead exposure, which a decade ago where considered safe, are not. All children are at risk for this entirely preventable condition, as the recent toy recalls have shown.”
Some of the symptoms associated with high lead levels of lead may include stomach pain, body and head aches, vomiting, muscle fatigue, trouble paying attention, and behavior and learning problems.
Boys Town Pediatrics provides primary healthcare services to children through clinics throughout Douglas, Sarpy and Pottawattamie Counties.
Many Douglas County children under six years of age are not being tested for lead in accordance with County recommendations and Medicaid requirements. The overall goal is to screen 100% of the children seen in Boys Town Pediatric Clinics for the presence of lead. “By implementing national protocols for identifying lead exposure, we are advancing health care for children,” said Dr. Tonniges.
