Cost of Child Lead Poisoning to Taxpayers in Mahoning County, Ohio

Lead poisoning in children imposes both immediate and long-term financial burdens on taxpayers. The District Board of Health of Mahoning County, Ohio, quantified some of the direct costs to taxpayers of providing medical care and public health services to the 279 children diagnosed with lead poisoning in the county in 2002, using methods described by Katrina Korfmacher at the University of Rochester. The Board of Health also attempted to quantify the longer-term costs of special education and juvenile justice services attributable to lead exposure. The realization that lead poisoning costs local government on the order of $0.5 million each year has mobilized community leaders in education and juvenile justice to demand more aggressive action against rental property owners who fail to remediate lead hazards.