Blood Lead Levels Among Afghan Children in the United States, 2014-2016

Abstract

Lead poisoning disproportionately affects children and can result in permanent neurologic damage.1 Although blood lead levels (BLLs) declined among children in the United States over the past several decades, children resettling to the United States from other countries emerged as a population at risk for BLLs that are higher than the United States blood lead reference value of $5 mg/dL at the time of this analysis.2 Among children screened for lead shortly after resettlement, children from Afghanistan have a higher prevalence of BLLs$5 mg/dL compared with children from other countries,3,4 but timely sources of data available for analysis are limited. In 2021, the United States troop withdrawal from Afghanistan prompted the rapid evacuation and resettlement of more than 76 000 Afghans to the United States.5 We analyzed existing data from domestic medical examinations (DMEs) conducted from 2014 to 2016 for refugees and eligible populations #90 days after arrival in multiple states. We described and compared the prevalence of BLL $5 mg/dL among Afghan and non-Afghan refugee children screened and evaluated select characteristics associated with BLL$5 mg/dL among Afghan children