A report showing that lead remains the state’s most serious environmental health hazard has prompted two legislators to call for universal blood screenings for children under age 6. That is possibly a good idea, but before the Legislature mandates the screenings, doctors should be given time to make improved screening equipment a part of their practices and the state should expand its effort to get rid of lead in the environment.

The good news is that lead levels in tested Maine children have dropped significantly – about 15 percent a year since 1994. Eliminating lead in house paint, plumbing supplies, gasoline and countless other products has made a real difference. Like mercury, lead is a neurotoxin that even in low doses is associated with lowered intelligence and in higher doses damage to the nervous system and kidneys or to high blood pressure, seizures or comas.

The bad news in Maine is that lead levels are about twice the national average but only a small fraction of Maine children – 1 in 9 – are screened for it. The percentage tested has actually fallen in recent years, and the rates of follow-up for children found to have high levels of lead in their blood are dismal. Part of this may be that the tests aren’t routinely done in a primary-care office and so require parents to make a separate visit or visits to a lab. If lawmakers are interested in raising Maine’s rate of lead testing, they could begin by directing doctors to the Bureau of Health, which says that it can provide accurate fingerstick testing that can be done in the office and turns a difficult procedure into an easy one.

The report, an analysis from the Maine Medical Assessment Foundation, describes high lead levels as a statewide problem, seen twice as often among Medicaid patients as in the general public and attributed in part to Maine’s older housing stock. Because Medicaid patients live all over Maine and, perhaps not coincidentally, older homes are found in every Maine town, targeting a specific geographic area isn’t an effective way to deal with this problem. A statewide effort is needed.

Bureau of Health Director Dora Mills says she is reluctant to make lead testing mandatory in Maine, preferring to let doctors improve their records of their own initiative. Given the number of mandates already on doctors and the unintended effects that mandates inevitably produce, this is a good idea. She might suggest legislation that establishes a goal – say, a 50 percent improvement in testing over five years – with the threat of consideration

of a mandate if the goal isn’t met.

Meantime, the bureau should take the evidence that lead levels in children are dropping significantly and consistently as

a sign that the state can act to rid the environment of this toxin. With doctors certainly already aware of the dangers of lead, a combination of making office screenings easier and mitigation more a priority might be the most effective course.