However, that could change soon.
Two New Jersey engineers now have a patent on a new, and much easier, way to test for lead exposure.
Unlike current tests, which require blood to be drawn, the new test, called Toxyscreen, uses a swab to collect oral fluid and cells along the gumline.
During clinical trials in Camden, and at several hospitals and health centers in Atlanta, children were given the conventional blood test, and then the new Toxyscreen swab test.
Both had the same accuracy. However, the Toxyscreen swab generated far fewer tears among the kids, fewer winces among the parents, and it was faster - and easier on everyone.
Co-inventor Gene Elwell says, "The nurses that were doing the collection in atlanta - at grady memorial hospital - were actually testing with our swab on children that were asleep in their mother's arms. You can't do that with a blood test."
Elwell says another plus is that there's no biohazard waste with the swab test.
Exposure to lead can affect a child's nervous system, and learning.
Millions of American children have been exposed to lead paint in homes built before 1972.
But Elwell says only a fraction get screened.
"In Medicaid, they have 23 million children that need to be tested, and they've only done no more than 10 to 12 per cent," he says.
Elwell's company, OFT Labs, hopes to have health departments on board with the new test soon. The Georgia Department of Health could be the first.
