CDC denies help for lead poisoning in Milwaukee schools due to layoffs

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

April 11, 2025 / 12:19 PM EDT


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has rejected a request from health officials in Milwaukee for help with a lead poisoning investigation, after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. eliminated the agency's response team. "I sincerely regret to inform you that due to the complete loss of our Lead Program, we will be unable to support you with this," Aaron Bernstein, director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, told city officials April 3 in an email obtained by CBS News.

Officials in Milwaukee and Wisconsin's state health department had formally requested the CDC's help on March 26, after many of the city's schools were found to have "significant lead hazards" exposing children. Federal experts were asked to help develop a strategy to test and triage Milwaukee public school students for lead poisoning, as well as help with outreach to the community.

"This only underscores the importance of the role local public health plays in protecting communities – and the challenges we now face without federal expertise to call on," Caroline Reinwald, a spokesperson for the City of Milwaukee Health Department, said in a statement to CBS News on Thursday.

Children exposed to lead can face serious harm to their brain and nervous system, including slowing their development and causing problems with their hearing and speech. Most of Milwaukee's schools were built before 1978, local health officials said in their initial request to the CDC for help, before lead-based paint was banned in the U.S. Inspections of some schools has turned up "significant lead hazards," they said.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/milwaukee-schools-lead-poisoning-cdc-denies-help/

[Irish_Dem]

1. Lead damage lowers IQ in children.

It should be considered an emergency situation.

[displacedvermoter]

2. Republicans want to do all they can to even up the low IQ count

[Irish_Dem]

3. Yes the GOP will injure, damage, kill as many Americans as it takes

to get the power and wealth they want.

Even children.

[Dave Bowman]

4. Jr's supposedly scared of vaccines but lead is ok?

[Maninacan]

5. Here and Now

I am watching PBS Wisconsin. Showing condition of classrooms. This all should have been cleaned up 50 years ago. Apparently 20k per classroom is expensive. They have half billion dollar arenas in MKE. I could go in with PPE after some training and do that work. One of the textbooks under a desk looked in worse condition than any book i ever had in school.

[electric_blue68]

6. And the damage continues....😑🤬