Potential effectiveness of parents' actions to reduce children's lead exposure

There have been few descriptive studies of parents' efforts to decrease children's exposure to lead. From parents who brought their children to 6 public lead-screening clinics and agreed to participate in a larger study of lead-exposure patterns, a purposeful sample (N = 125) was selected. The children of these parents had at least 1 lead-exposure risk factor, based on parental report. On a questionnaire, only 30% of the parents documented either the child's sources of possible lead exposure, their actions to reduce exposure, or both. Documenting an exposure source was significantly associated with documenting an action. Documenting exposure sources and documenting actions were both associated with prior knowledge of lead's risks; these relationships were influenced by the child's history of prior lead screening. Parent's reported actions to reduce exposure were categorized for potential effectiveness in relation to the child's risk factors; very few actions were considered effective. Results suggest that parents need information to help them identify sources of lead exposure and to minimize their children's risks.