Children across the United States are often more vulnerable than adults are to certain things, such as lead poisoning. The truth is that lead is not safe in any amount in the blood. Lead can cause all sorts of damage in the bloodstream, such as brain damage, issues in the nervous system, problems with behavior, disabilities with learning, and many other medical issues. Many of those issues that are caused by lead end up being permanent.
Recently, there has been legislation that was passed in Georgia General Assembly and then signed by Georgia’s Governor Kemp. The law offers increased protection for children in Georgia who have unfortunately been exposed to lead. The approach to detecting lead in a child’s bloodstream, known as the blood lead level (BLL) is measured in micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. Before the new legislation, the blood had to contain at least 20 micrograms of lead per deciliter. With the new legislation, the blood must only contain 3.5 micrograms per deciliter for lead poisoning to be determined.
Many children may be saved
The new legislation may go a long way to identifying and helping to prevent cases of lead poisoning from happening. Thus, more and more children will be protected from the ill effects that lead poisoning can have on them (and often does). The children who are the most vulnerable, according to the Georgia Department of Health, are those aged six years and under. Children living under the poverty line, people living in older buildings, and pregnant women are also extremely vulnerable.
One of the most alarming things about lead poisoning is that if a person has been poisoned, there are often few or no symptoms. The way to figure out if the person has lead poisoning is through a blood test. The test is done by a finger prick, a heel prick, or from a vein in the person’s arm. If the test results conclude that there is lead poisoning, the healthcare provider can inform the person (or the parents in the case of a child having been poisoned) about what to do next and what medical care is needed.
Speaking with a knowledgeable Georgia attorney
If you or your child have experienced lead poisoning, the advice of a knowledgeable Georgia attorney may make a tremendous difference to your case. If the source of the lead poisoning was a rented residence, the landlord has a responsibility to keep the tenants safe and being exposed to lead is the antithesis of that. Additionally, the landlord has a responsibility to warn the people who are living in the building about the danger before anything happens. There are, of course, many other sources of lead and in each case, there are responsible parties.
The attorney can walk you through the steps of the process that you should follow so that you can go after the compensation that you deserve. Your must protect your rights and make sure that those who are responsible for your safety do the right thing and keep you safe. If they haven’t done that, they must take responsibility for their actions otherwise.