A Lead Story: Lead Service Line Replacements and Child Blood Lead Levels

Virtual Seminar
Washington, DC 20460
United States

Contact: Carl Pasurka, 202-566-2275 ([email protected])

Presenter:  Michelle Marcus (Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University)

Description:  While the negative consequences of lead exposure in children on cognitive function, human capital, earnings, and crime are well known, as many as 500,000 (2.5%) US children under 6 years old still have elevated blood lead levels. One common, yet understudied, source of lead exposure in children is from drinking water contaminated by lead service lines. An estimated 6 million lead service lines still exist throughout the US and about 15 to 22 million people (7%) are served by water systems with lead service lines. This paper studies the effectiveness of public lead service line replacements on lowering blood lead levels in children by combining blood lead test data with confidential address information with geocoded service line installation data from Rhode Island. Replacement of public side lead service lines significantly reduces child blood lead levels by about 0.4 percentage points, or 13 percent from the mean.