AMWA and the American Water Works Association (AWWA) submitted joint comments December 4 to the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF), regarding the panel’s draft recommendation for screening blood lead levels (BLL) in children and pregnant women.
USPSTF, a volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine created in 1984, makes “evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services, and preventive medications.” These recommendations are only applicable to those individuals who currently have no signs or symptoms of the disease or condition under evaluation.
This current draft, released in October of this year, looked at the benefits and harms of BLL testing in asymptomatic children under age 5 and pregnant women. The panel’s draft recommendation concluded that “the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for elevated blood lead levels” for both studied groups.
In AMWA’s and AWWA’s joint comment letter, the associations stressed the importance of the panel’s recommendation in both “guiding the behavior of clinicians” and “informing what medical services are funded by Medicare and Medicaid.” The associations went on to list the important roles of BLL testing for the task force to recognize and consider in the group’s final recommendation including informing intervention strategies to reduce environmental exposure to lead and to identify household exposure risks.