'Crucial' programs to protect kids from lead on chopping block in White House budget

WASHINGTON (7News) — The most recent data available shows half a million kids across America have elevated lead in their blood, threatening their developing brains and bodies. Early detection and intervention can lead to brighter futures, but pulling the plug on federal funding for testing and tracking threatens to keep lead exposure in the dark.

Rudy Callahan is a happy, rambunctious toddler with no idea he's being actively watched and tracked because he was poisoned by an invisible threat.

We first met his mom, Sarah, in 2023.

"We're constantly monitoring and looking for signs of lead poisoning," Sarah Callahan said, adding that a lead specialist has told the family that Rudy may never be completely free of the toxic heavy metal.

The reason Rudy's family found out that they were among hundreds whose kids were exposed to the same source of concentrated, high levels of lead was because of a national surveillance system. It's vital information funded from the "National Center for Environmental Health," or NCEH, an agency set to be eliminated in the new White House budget plan.

Dr. Monica Mehta detected lead in Rudy's blood during a routine test, the likes of which are often funded by those federal dollars from NCEH.

Dr. Mehta said cutting that money would have "horrible" effects.

"It's definitely going to negatively impact child health in the United States," Dr. Mehta said.

The White House said the work of the NCEH is being slashed because it is "duplicative, DEI, or simply unnecessary."

Experts we've spoken to were not able to identify another agency that is doing the work of tracking lead exposure among kids.

"It's very necessary," said Dr. Mehta. "This is the United States. We protect our children at all costs and routine surveillance, routine screening, making sure that we are testing children is part of keeping them healthy."

The testing and tracking NCEH funds support enabled investigators to connect lead poisoning cases nationwide, including Rudy Callahan, to cinnamon applesauce loaded with lead. It triggered a massive recall, preventing the ongoing poisoning of kids.

"If we don't have these environmental protection agencies that are looking for these hotspots, we're never going to be able to catch these sorts of poisonings, and we're potentially going to impact so many more children," said Dr. Mehta.

The White House's budget said NCEH programs "can be conducted more effectively by states."

So we asked.

We contacted every state health department in the country.

Nearly half of the states that responded said cutting federal funds will harm their ability to protect kids from lead. The others declined to comment or said it was too early to tell. None definitively stated that they could absorb the cost of tracking and surveillance without federal money.

Responding states noted the funds are "crucial" and "critical," with one saying losing them would "be detrimental" to the health of kids.

Tom Neltner is a leading authority on lead exposure and the National President of Unleaded Kids, a non-profit addressing gaps in U.S. lead policy.

He remembers how funding cuts impacted public health back in 2012.

"The Obama Administration chose to cut the grants to states and to trim back the lead program because it would be picked up by other programs," Neltner said.

But, he told us, that didn't happen.

In 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan, switched its source of drinking water from Detroit's system to the contaminated Flint River, exposing more than 10,000 children to dangerous levels of lead.

According to Neltner, funding cuts two years earlier eliminated the jobs of those who would have tracked and noticed rising lead levels in kids' test results, slowing the response to the Flint crisis.

"We went blind to Flint because didn’t have the state level people that were watching for the problems," Neltner said. "So we’ve seen this story before. We know how it plays out, and it’s a bad story for children’s health."

It's a story Rudy Callahan's mom said we'd be wise to learn from, because once the damage is done, it can't be unwound.

"It's something that Rudy's going to have to live with for the rest of his life," she said.

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We reached out to the Office of Management and Budget and HHS to find out more about the cuts and whether HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would use his discretionary authority to sidestep them. We did not receive a response. Congress could also elect to continue the funding, as it has final authority over the White House budget. We'll be watching closely for new developments.