Since the outset of the year, the city of Milwaukee has been grappling with acute concentrations of harmful lead dust in several of its public schools, a crisis that led to the shutdown of nine institutions. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, informed a Senate committee on Tuesday that there was a federal group stationed in the city from the CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. However, these positions had been terminated as of April. ‘Even with these cuts, we maintain our support for the program in Milwaukee, providing analytical laboratory aid and working closely with the city’s health department,’ Kennedy assured during the hearing before the Senate Committee on Appropriations, in response to queries from Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island.
However, this account was refuted by a spokesperson for the Milwaukee Health Department, Caroline Reinwald, who confirmed that there were no representatives either from the HHS or CDC present in Milwaukee to help attend to the lead hazard in the city’s schools. Prior to this, Kennedy had hinted at the possibility of reviving the childhood lead program and had categorically stated to Senator Tammy Baldwin just a week earlier that the issue of lead poisoning in children was of ‘extreme significance’.
When questioned by Sen. Reed regarding the future of the program in light of these remarks, Kennedy didn’t provide a response that could clarify the situation. Responding to these developments, Milwaukee Health Commissioner, Michael Totoraitis wittily remarked, ‘I did wonder if they might have been caught up in Chicago traffic and failed to make it to Milwaukee,’ referring to Kennedy’s unrealized promises of a ‘team’ in the city.
Federal experts had previously been involved in addressing Milwaukee’s lead crisis. In fact, specialists in childhood lead poisoning from the CDC had established communication channels with the Milwaukee Health Department when the city’s schools first started grappling with the lead issue. ‘They verified our worries about the test results we were getting in our institutions,’ Totoraitis explained.
Totoraitis further revealed that federal experts had proposed school shutdowns as a measure to address this crisis. Initially, the city’s health department had been averse to such an extreme measure, in an attempt to prevent any potential disruptions to the learning process. However, given the risk of irreversible cerebral injury resulting from lead poisoning, the city had no choice but to rely on expert advice from their federal associates.
During the month of March, the city formally requested for a CDC Epi-Aid team to be dispatched to Milwaukee with the purpose of strengthening the city’s response to the school lead crisis. But, much to the city’s misfortune, Totoraitis learned in early April that the specialists who were supposed to lead this team had been laid off, leading to the denial of their request. Totoraitis expressed that this team would have boosted the city’s testing capabilities and their proficiency in lead-related issues could have helped identify trends not easily recognizable by city officials.
Despite the absence of a special lead team, the unavailability of expert advice from the CDC has had substantial consequences. Totoraitis lamented the fact that they no longer had the crucial facility to remotely engage with CDC experts which once enabled them to devise investigation strategies for lead-contaminated schools and undertake extensive epidemiological research into the sources of poisoning. ‘These are the aspects that we are earnestly missing now,’ he confessed.
After the unfortunate staff layoffs, one of the experts from the CDC offered their assistance to the city on a voluntary basis. Interestingly, Totoraitis also noted that the city might potentially enter a contract with some of these now-jobless staff members directly. ‘We are highly optimistic that we can secure needed funding by June, via one of our grants, to employ a portion of these former CDC staff,’ he added.
However, he also emphasized that his department maintains a strongly efficient lead poisoning program, which handles approximately 1,000 cases each year. Even with the absence or reduction of federal assistance, their work continues unabated, according to department spokesperson Reinwald.
Referring to Kennedy’s claims of providing laboratory support to the analytics in Milwaukee, Reinwald confirmed the visit of a CDC laboratory specialist to the city in the month of May. The specialist was in the city for two weeks, assisting the health department to set up a new device for processing lead samples from various parts of the city, including those connected to the school lead crisis.
However, as Totoraitis clarified, this visit was planned prior to the emergence of the school lead crisis. The city had already kicked off its plans to enhance lead-testing capacity before the crisis took hold. Historically, the lab specialist’s visit was planned independent of the MPS situation, with a limited technical role specific to assimilating the equipment, as Reinwald elaborated.
Totoraitis verified that it was a solitary individual, contrary to Kennedy’s assertions about a ‘team’ being present in Milwaukee to assist them. He further commented, ‘Though the secretary mentioned the existence of a team in Milwaukee, I’m unsure who he was referring to.’
The post Milwaukee Struggles with Lead Crisis in Public Schools appeared first on Real News Now.
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