Childhood poisoning program does not work in the federal government, despite the allegations of Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Junior has been funded.
26 employees of the program were placed on an administrative vacation in April, with determinants on June 2, as part of a wider restructuring of federal agencies within the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services.
Until now, none of the employees has been returned, with workers ’layoffs that are scheduled for less than two weeks, said Eric Svinden, director of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Practice, a department within the centers of control and prevention control that includes the childhood bullet program.
Kennedy has faced criticism in the last weeks of Democratic Senate members for overcoming the program, which helped the health and local circles in testing blood and monitoring.
in The hearing before the Senate Credit Committee On Tuesday, Kennedy told Senator Jacques Reed, the program is still funded. In the previous week, Senator Tami Baldwin, Di Wes, told him that he had no plans to eliminate him.
But Svendsen said that his entire division was solved by HHS and cannot be easily replaced.
“There are no other experts who do what we do,” he said. “You can not only press a button and get new people because our public health areas are very specialized.”
Childhood bulletin employees have not received a directive on how to transfer their work, according to CDC scientists knowing this issue.
Even low lead levels of lead can endanger the risk of development delay, learning difficulties and behavioral issues. CDC provided technical experience to help health departments that lack resources to prevent these results. In 2023, he helped solve a The outbreak of poisoning at the country level is linked to cinnamon apples. He was in repeated contact with the Ministry of Health in Milwoke this year after the city discovered dangerous lead levels in some public schools.
Kennedy Reed told Tuesday that “we have a team in Milwaukee” providing laboratory support and analyzes to the Ministry of Health.
But the Milwoke Ministry of Health said that Kennedy’s statement was inaccurate, and that the city had not received any parenting or analytical web support related to the lead crisis.
“Unfortunately, in this case, this is another example in which the Secretary does not have his facts,” said Mike Toturitis, the city’s health commissioner.
Caroline Ryanwal, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health in Milwoki, said that the only only participation of the federal government in the lead crisis was “a two -week short visit from one of the employees of the Disease Control Center this month, and helped verify new health in our laboratory.”
“This support was independently requested [Milwaukee Public Schools] “The crisis was part of a separate need present in advance to expand our laboratory’s long -term ability to test lead,” Ryanald said in a statement.
HHS said it will continue the efforts to eliminate shot poisoning in childhood through a newly created section called the administration of America’s health. But democratic lawmakers and environmental health groups Question how the work can continue Without returning employees.
“Despite what she told me last week, that you have no intention to eliminate this program, I launched the entire office responsible for its implementation,” Baldwin said in a session on Tuesday. “Your decision to dismiss employees and get rid of offices endanger children, including thousands of children in Milwaukee.”
HHS did not respond to the comment request.
Kennedy did not provide new details about the restructuring plan for his agency in the hearing, noting the court’s order that was forced into the Trump administration. Efforts stop to reduce the size of the federal government.
The leading Milocke crisis became clear to health officials in February, when the city’s Ministry of Health has set dangerous levels of poison in school classes, corridors and common areas, due to bullets and bullet -based paint.
Toturitis said that before the childhood bullet program was destroyed, the Center for Disease Control was meeting with the Milwaukee Health Department on a weekly basis to reach a plan to examine tens of thousands of students for bullet poisoning.
Toturitis said that the city’s Ministry of Health asked the Center for Disease Control on March 26 to send employees to help, but the agency launched its childhood team on April 1 and rejected Milwoki’s request after two days.
He said: “This is the first time in at least 75 years that the EPI-ID control center denies, so it is a beautiful historical moment,” referring to a request to the CDC Office to investigate an urgent public health problem.
So far, the Ministry of Health in Milwoki has identified more than 100 schools built before 1978, when the federal government has banned consumer uses of lead -based paints. Toturitis said about 40 of these had been searched. Six schools have been closed since the beginning of the year due to lead pollution, and only two reopened.
Toturitis said that about 350 Melocke students were examined for bullet -poisoning out of 44,000, which were determined as being subjected to potential risks. The city confirmed one case linked to the leadership of the school, and two other ranks of exposure in both the school and the house. The Ministry of Health said it was investigating four additional cases, which may have multiple sources of exposure.
Toturitis said that the administration used to search for driving in homes and rental units, but the Center for Disease Control was supposed to help them expand the scope of this process to inspect large buildings. He said that the employees of the Disease Control Center were supposed to help prepare lead and investigate clinics at the place where children were exposed.
While the Ministry of Health deals with these efforts on its own, Totoraitis said it may not have the ability to examine everyone in time. It was estimated that the department can manage about 1000 to 1,200 cases of shot poisoning in childhood in the year. This includes testing lead levels in the blood for children, and the treatment of lead poisoning with dislocating therapy (which removes heavy metals from the bloodstream) and eliminates exposure at home by replacing windows and doors.
Totoraitis said he hoped to employ two CDC employees who have been completed for at least two weeks to help address continuous questions about how the crisis is managed.
Better, he said: “I still hope to get an email from them they say,” Hey, we have prepared our jobs. “
