title: Childhood lead poisoning prevention through prenatal housing inspection and remediation in St. Louis, MO.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We assessed the screening and remediation of home lead hazards prenatally in a high-risk population, hypothesizing that average blood-lead level and the number of poisonings would drop by 25%.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred fifty-two women underwent prenatal home inspections by certified lead inspectors. The hazards that were identified were remediated. The blood-lead levels of children of participating women were compared with matched control subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Blood-lead levels were obtained from 60 children and compared with matched control subjects. The average blood-lead level of children in the treatment group was 2.70 μg/dL vs 3.73 μg/dL in control subjects (P = .019). The percentage of children with levels >10 μg/dL in the treatment group was 0% vs 4.2% in control subjects (P = .128).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Screening and remediation of houses of pregnant women is effective to reduce the average blood-lead level and number of children that exceed the federal level of concern for lead poisoning in a high-risk population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Family Care Health Centers, Saint Louis, MO, USA. dberg@fchcstl.org
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.forename: Erin T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Eckstein
authors.forename: Matt S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gavard
authors.forename: Gilad A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Gross
mesh_terms: D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007855:Lead Poisoning / Q000097:blood / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008923:Missouri / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy