Healthy People Objectives

Overview

For three decades, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time to:

• Identify nationwide health improvement priorities
• Increase public awareness and understanding of the determinants of health, disease, and disability and the opportunities for progress
• Provide measurable objectives and goals that are applicable at the national, state, and local levels
• Engage multiple sectors to take actions to strengthen policies and improve practices that are driven by the best available evidence and knowledge
• Identify critical research, evaluation, and data collection needs
• Measure the impact of prevention activities

CDC's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program is working to achieve two Healthy People 2030 objectives:

• EH-08: Reduce exposure to lead
• EH-04: Reduce blood lead levels in children aged 1 to 5 years

Overall, the Healthy People 2020 objectives for blood lead levels have been met:

• EH-8.1 To reduce blood lead levels in children (in the 97.5 percentile, age 1–5 years); Baseline was 5.8 µg/dL and is currently 3.5 µg/dL, representing a 40% reduction
• EH-8.2 To reduce the mean blood lead levels in children (geometric mean, age 1–5 years); Baseline was 1.8 µg/dL and is currently 0.8 µg/dL, representing a 55% reduction

However, significant disparities in blood lead levels based on race/ethnicity and income still remains. Non-Hispanic Black children, those in low-income households, and immigrants or refugees, are more likely to live in communities with lead.

CDC continues its commitment to health equity by striving to protect children who are at higher risk of exposure to lead. No safe blood lead level in children has been identified. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect learning and academic achievement. Some effects may even be permanent.

CDC is committed to help address this threat and improve health outcomes for our nation's most vulnerable citizens—our children.