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Childhood Lead Poisoning Surveillance
The routine childhood blood lead testing, reporting, follow-up, and prevention are summarized in the annual surveillance report by selected demographics (county, age, gender, race, and poverty status). The annual reports date back to 1993 and are intended to serve as standard reference for legislators, community-based organizations, city, state and federal agencies, as well as health researchers who seek information on lead poisoning prevention in Illinois.
In 1993, state-mandated screening for childhood lead poisoning in children 6 years of age and younger began. As of December 2017, physicians and other health care providers have conducted 6.9 million blood lead tests on 3.3 million children. More than 200,000 thousand children are tested for blood lead each year. The numbers of elevated and normal test results are used to identify areas where effort is needed to combat lead poisoning.