By I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, April 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) — When officials in Wisconsin’s largest city asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for help dealing with high levels of lead in city schools, the answer wasn’t what they expected.
The CDC said no — because it no longer has the staff to help.
“I sincerely regret to inform you that due to the complete loss of our Lead Program, we will be unable to support you with this EpiAid request,” Dr. Aaron Bernstein, director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, wrote last week to Milwaukee officials. A copy of the letter was obtained by CNN.
In the past, experts from the CDC’s EpiAid program have provided short-term help to local agencies dealing with urgent public health issues.
Milwaukee requested that support on March 26, after finding hazardous lead levels in several school buildings.
Lead is highly toxic — even small amounts can harm the brain. There is no safe level of lead exposure. It is most often found in older buildings that used lead-based paint before it was banned in 1978.
Milwaukee Health Commissioner Dr. Mike Totoraitis had been working with the CDC for two months on this issue, according to CNN. But on April 1 — the same day 10,000 federal health employees were laid off as part of a major government downsizing — the city was told its CDC contact could no longer help.
“My entire division was eliminated today,” a CDC epidemiologist wrote in an email to CNN, adding that others in the agency would take over. But those new contacts were unable to say what kind of help they could offer, according to Totoraitis.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the lead prevention program might be brought back.
“There are some programs that were cut that are being reinstated, and I think that’s one of them,” Kennedy said on April 3, noting that “there were a number of instances where … personnel that should not have been cut were cut.”
But that same night, Milwaukee was officially denied CDC support.
“While we’re disappointed, [the Milwaukee Health Department’s] work has not stopped,” Caroline Reinwald, a spokesperson for the department, told CNN. “This only underscores the importance of the role local public health plays in protecting communities — and the challenges we now face without federal expertise to call on.”
More information
The World Health Organization has more on lead poisoning.
SOURCE: CNN, April 11, 2025
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