A state lawmaker from Indianapolis has proposed legislation to spend $2.9 million to double the number of Medicaid-eligible children tested for lead poisoning.
As East Chicago continues to grapple with its lead crisis, the measure introduced by Sen. Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis, would attempt to screen children at risk from the toxin’s developmental and cognitive damage.
Doubling the numbers of Medicaid-eligible children tested for lead would increase testing by 107,000 children statewide, according to the bill’s analysis.
Breaux said on Wednesday that she had not been closely following the East Chicago lead contamination crisis, but intended to target situations similar to it – catching low-income children who may have a greater risk of exposure.
“It’s a moral obligation that we focus on these kinds of areas and we do what we need to do to address them,” Breaux said. “We want to grab as many of the kids as we possibly can.”
The cost would be split between federal funds and the state’s general fund – or its main checking account. Federal funds would pay for $1.9 million with state funds covering the remaining $1 million of testing costs.
State figures show 106,934 of 362,586 children 6 and younger – or just under 30 percent of Medicaid-eligible children received required lead testing in 2012.
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For decades, scientists have cautioned that no lead levels are safe, especially for children, at risk for significant cognitive and developmental damage.
According to the CDC, children with lead exposure with blood levels over 1 micrograms per deciliter “are associated with measurable reductions in IQ” and may lose between $3,000 and $8,000 in lifetime earnings for each “incremental increase” of one microgram per deciliter of lead found in their blood.
Historically, in the census tract that includes East Chicago’s West Calumet neighborhood, 160 children younger than age 6 — or 21 percent of the kids screened between 2005 and 2015 — registered lead levels that exceeded federal health guidelines, state health department records show, more than three times the average rate statewide.
In December, former Gov, Mike Pence’s administration denied East Chicago mayor’s request for an emergency declaration. It cited a series of services the state had supplied to city officials to assist residents at the U.S.S. Lead Superfund site. City officials said Copeland plans to submit a new request to Gov. Eric Holcomb.
Two proposals by state lawmakers are scheduled to receive an initial hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee in Indianapolis on Thursday.
Legislation sponsored by Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond, would take money from the Department of Homeland Security and disburse it to eligible agencies dealing with lead and arsenic contamination in East Chicago.
Should the bill pass, $2.5 million would be available to the city during the next two budget years.
Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, also sponsored legislation that would provide about $2.2 million for payments on the former Carrie Gosch Elementary School and just over $2.8 million to cover an emergency state loan for the district that was approved in August.
Students were moved from that school as a precaution last fall and will continue to attend the school’s new location at the former West Side Junior High School next year.
The district still owes about $2 million on the former school, East Chicago Superintendent Paige McNulty said earlier this month.
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