Parents In Wisconsin Can Now Test Their Children For Lead Exposure Using Saliva
LeadConfirm Professional, the first and only non-invasive and oral-based lead testing product in the market today, is now available to more doctors and health care professionals in Wisconsin through a wider distribution base.
San Diego, CA (Vocus) June 15, 2009
San Diego – LeadConfirm Professional, the first and only non-invasive and oral-based lead testing product (http://www. leadtestconfirm. com/) in the market today, is now available to more doctors and health care professionals in Wisconsin through a wider distribution base.
Confirm BioSciences Inc., the company behind the development of LeadConfirm Professional, reports that the lead testing product can now be purchased conveniently from various reputable online stores such as Amazon. com and TestCountry. com. All that a buyer needs to do is to visit the website, place the order, and then wait for the product to be delivered to them within a few days.
LeadConfirm Professional is a testing product that checks if the body is affected by lead contamination and by how much. The testing is done using saliva collected through an FDA-approved device. The saliva is then placed in vials and sent to the Confirm BioSciences laboratories in a prepaid envelope included in the testing kit.
To test for lead (http://www. leadtestconfirm. com/product_details. asp) contamination in the body using saliva samples, Confirm BioSciences utilizes advanced technology in Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with Mass Spectrometry X2 (LC/MS/MS). The results are available within five to six business days. The patient can get these results online or through telephone.
Representatives from Confirm BioSciences stated that there is a huge need for the public to have better products for testing lead among children in Wisconsin. This is what prompted the company to make LeadConfirm Professional open to a broader distribution base.
Zeynep Ilgaz, president and CEO of Confirm BioSciences, said: “There is a tremendous need for this product, as lead poisoning (http://www. leadtestconfirm. com/faq. asp#16) is a major issue in our society.”
“This test will be available to the professional market and through doctors’ offices for individuals who would like to have their levels checked,” Ms. Ilgaz added. Ms. Ilgaz is a mother of two.
Statistics from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration back up this need for more accessible lead testing products such as LeadConfirm Professional. In the United States alone, there are more than a million workers in at least 100 different jobs who are exposed to lead on a daily basis. These include people employed in manufacturing plants making ceramic tiles and batteries. Lead exposure also affects people working as mechanics, painters, welders and other related jobs.
People in manufacturing and related service jobs are not the only ones who are likely candidates for high levels of lead exposure. It is possible for children staying at home to have industrial levels of lead in the body. Children can be exposed to lead from urban dust, from food and from breathing lead particles in the air.
Researchers have long suspected that blood lead levels—and the incidence of lead poisoning—follow seasonal trends, but these suspicions had never been confirmed for Wisconsin preschoolers
The study, published in the latest issue of the Wisconsin Medical Journal (Vol. 108, No. 3), analyzed blood lead test results from nearly 677,000 Wisconsin children under age 6 from 1996 to 2008. The researchers found that average blood lead levels were lowest in March and highest in September, suggesting that lead may be more prevalent in Wisconsin children’s environments during the summer months.
In addition, these levels were most pronounced among infants less than 10 weeks old who lived in both the most and least densely populated areas of the state.
Although lead-based paint inside the home is the single greatest source of lead in a child’s environment, lead-containing dust from outside the home also appears to play a significant role, most likely when parents open windows and take the child outside to play.
“A short-lived but intense event could lead to significant transport of [lead-containing] particulates into the interior of building, especially if the doors and windows were open or in use at the time,” the researchers said.
Some possible exterior sources of lead include lead-based paint on the outside of children’s homes and other homes in their neighbourhoods, the soil of these homes’ yards, residual contamination from leaded fuels and windblown dust from distant sources. The study’s authors recommend that these potential lead sources be studied further.
The authors also recommend that health care professionals consider retesting children whose blood lead levels approach the lead-poisoning threshold during an off-peak period month such as March or April. They recommend that these children be tested again during the summer since they may be at greater risk for lead poisoning then.
High Risk Areas for Lead Poisoning by County Level, Wisconsin 2006
Milwaukee County:#Children Tested 26,343, Total Confirmed Lead Poisoning Case 1091 Racine County: #Children Tested 4,952, Total Confirmed Lead Poisoning Case 89 Sheboygan County: #Children Tested 1,726, Total Confirmed Lead Poisoning Case 46
Data analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Based on 2000 US Census data.
Lead exposure (http://information. leadtestconfirm. com/leadconfirm-press-releases/parents-in-wisconsin-can-now-test-their-children-for-lead-exposure-using-saliva) is particularly dangerous for children. It can result in anemia, learning disabilities, speech delays, attention deficit disorders, mental retardation, hearing loss, and different forms of renal and neurological damage.
Typically, lead testing products require blood samples from the patient. This is often difficult if the patient to be tested is a child. In such cases, it is more effective to use saliva samples instead of blood samples. Researchers from the Department of Health in North Carolina proved that saliva tests are just as conclusive as blood tests in determining lead levels in a person’s body.
Confirm BioSciences is a respected provider of diagnostic drugs and testing kits, including LeadConfirm Professional. More information on Confirm BioSciences is available at www. confirmbiosciences. com
Confirm BioSciences Inc.
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