Lead poisoning testing in Flint, Michigan

Brian Jones, a first responder for Livingston County, Michigan, screens a 5-year-old for lead in her blood at an elementary school in Flint, Michigan, on Jan. 26, 2016. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

Children in the Lehigh Valley's three cities had significantly higher levels of lead exposure than the state average -- higher even than in Flint, Michigan, where a lead-contaminated water crisis has grabbed national headlines, a report says.

Seventeen Pennsylvania cities exceeded the statewide rate of 9.37 percent for children with dangerously elevated blood lead levels, according to a 2014 state Department of Health report.

Allentown topped the list with 23.11 percent of children tested showing elevated blood lead levels with 5 or more micrograms per deciliter of lead in the blood -- the mark the government uses to describe dangerously elevated blood lead levels.

Easton was sixth, with 15.81 percent tested above the threshold, and Bethlehem seventh with 14.32 percent, state data shows.

The findings were included Wednesday in a report by the news website Vox that analyzed lead exposure rates across the country.

The Vox report noted that in Pennsylvania, nearly 10 percent of the more than 140,000 kids tested had dangerously high blood lead levels.

In Flint, where Flint River drinking water was found to be lead-contaminated, the rate of elevated lead exposure from 2014 to 2015 was 3.21 percent, according to the Vox report.

The prevalence of children in Pennsylvania with lead in the blood is nothing new. The state Department of Health has long considered it a serious health problem, particularly in older communities.

According to the state Health Department, there is a strong correlation between high lead levels and older housing.

With 40 percent of Pennsylvania's housing stock built before 1950 and lead paint a common component before its ban, many of Pennsylvania's homes hold potentially hazardous sources of lead exposure, the state says.

Allentown has been working to address issues of lead contamination in children, said city spokesman Mike Moore.

"This has been something that's been on the city's plate for a long time," he said.

Moore declined to get into specifics until completion of a report that he said will be delivered to city council within the next two weeks.

"We're preparing a white paper report that will address the issue of lead in children and what the city's response has been to it all," he said.

The controversy in Flint has brought renewed focus on lead poisoning in children.

In New Jersey this week, several community advocacy organizations teamed up to spotlight the issue. Eleven cities in New Jersey have a higher rate of children with dangerously high blood lead levels than Flint, they noted.

"In light of the Flint debacle, we wanted people to understand that water is not the only thing that's poisoning children," lyse Pivnick, director of environmental health for Isles Inc., told nj.com. Isles is a community development organization based in Trenton.

"Most people think the lead problem was solved when we took lead out of gasoline and new homes in the 1970s, but that's not true," she said.

The communities with the high lead levels include Irvington, East Orange, Trenton, Newark, Paterson, Plainfield, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Atlantic City, New Brunswick and Passaic, along with Salem and Cumberland counties.

"You can breathe it in from dust and you can swallow it," Pivnick told nj.com.

Jim Deegan may be reached at jdeegan@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @jim_deegan. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook.