Benefits of mitigating childhood lead exposures associated with private wells: Implementation of a population intervention model in Wake County, North Carolina

Abstract

Drinking water is an increasingly important mediator of children’s blood lead levels (BLL) in the United States; however, few studies have focused on childhood lead exposures arising from private well water specifically. This research estimated select health and economic benefits of connecting private well households to regulated community water systems. A population intervention model was used to predict the change in children’s BLLs associated with the intervention for a cohort of Wake County, North Carolina children (n=11,010). We also estimated downstream benefits, including avoided IQ loss and avoided lifetime earnings loss. BLLs were predicted to decrease by 16.5% under the intervention. Depending on the dose-response relationship used, this intervention could preserve an estimated 330 to 1430 IQ points within the cohort, corresponding to a per-child benefit ranging from $700 to$3100. We identified the selection of dose-response relationship as a source of uncertainty in estimating population health and economic benefits.Master of Science in Public Healt