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Suit says District ignores lead tests

By Jim McElhatton
August 15, 2007

The D.C. government has been failing to comply with a federal court order to screen thousands of low-income children for lead poisoning, according to lawyers in the case.

"As was obvious to the court in 2003, it is still obvious today that the children of the District of Columbia are not receiving the blood-lead tests they are entitled to receive," lawyers in a nearly decade-old class-action lawsuit recently said.

"Defendants' failure to provide the required blood-lead testing is even more egregious considering the high presence of lead in the drinking water in the District of Columbia," said attorneys from the D.C.-based law firm Terris, Pravlik & Millan, which represents city Medicaid recipients in the suit.

Elevated levels of lead were found in the city's water supply in 2003, but D.C. Water and Sewer Authority officials last year said the water supply now meets federal safety requirements. Lead is toxic and at high levels can cause learning and behavioral problems.

Still, the District has failed to meet federal requirements that Medicaid-eligible children from infancy to 5 get blood lead testing at regular intervals, the lawyers said. In addition, they say, the city is failing to provide accurate and reliable data about lead testing.

D.C. officials sharply dispute the claims, saying there is no evidence to suggest doctors fail to provide the screenings.

The D.C. Office of the Attorney General argued in court filings this week that "the District's physicians in fact do know their jobs and do order blood tests when required."

However, city attorneys acknowledge record-keeping problems have affected the city's ability to report accurate data on lead screening. One problem is the ongoing difficulty merging information in the city's lead-testing database with the District's Medicaid-enrollment list.

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