EPA Lead Program Grant Fact Sheet Physician’s Protocol to Identify Lead Poisoned Children/Father Flanagan's Boys' Home Omaha, Nebraska


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EPA Lead Program
Grant Fact Sheet
Physician's Protocol to Identify
Lead Poisoned Children/Father
Flanagan's Boys' Home
Omaha, Nebraska
EPA has selected Father Flanagan's
Boys' Home in Omaha, Nebraska for a
Targeted Lead Grant.
The $99,244 grant project is to design, pilot,
and disseminate a "physician's lead
screening protocol" within Boys Town
Pediatrics in Omaha to improve testing
rates and identification of cases of
childhood lead poisoning. If successful, the
protocol would be disseminated to all nine
Boys Town clinics and later to pediatricians
across the country.
Boys Town Pediatrics provides primary care
services to children through clinics in
Douglas County, NE, which has one of the
highest rates of childhood lead poisoning in
the state. The clinics' service area includes
the EPA Omaha Superfund lead site.
EPA's Targeted Lead Grants
EPA's Targeted Lead Grant Program funds
projects in areas with high incidences of
children with elevated blood-lead levels in
vulnerable populations. In 2007 the Agency
awarded more than $5.2 Million in grants
under this ambitious program. These
targeted grants are intended to address
immediate needs of the communities in
which they are awarded, and will also
highlight lead poison prevention strategies
that can be used in similar communities
across the country.
EPA's lead program is playing a major role
in meeting the federal goal of eliminating
childhood lead poisoning as a major public
health concern by 2010, and the projects
supported by these grant funds are an
important part of this ongoing effort.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control in 1978 there were 13.5 million
children in the US with elevated blood lead
levels. By 2002, that number had dropped
to 310,000.
For more information about EPA's Lead
Program, visit www.epa.gov/lead or call
the National Lead Information Center at
1-800-424-LEAD.
Many Douglas County children under 6 years of age are not being tested for lead in
accordance with County recommendations and Medicaid requirements. The overall goal is to
screen 95 percent of the children seen in Boys Town Pediatric Clinics for the presence of
lead.
2007 Targeted Lead Grant Program
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
www.epa.gov/lead

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