Brian Weaver, lead policy advisor at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, tells us about an emergency rule to strengthen standards that protect children from lead exposure; Annie Evans, ASTHO’s director of preparedness, discusses a recent...
Brian Weaver, lead policy advisor at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, tells us about an emergency rule to strengthen standards that protect children from lead exposure; Annie Evans, ASTHO’s director of preparedness, discusses a recent project that aimed to create an official definition of disability for the National Syndromic Surveillance Program; a new ASTHO Legislative Alert details President Trump’s FY26 discretionary budget proposal; and ASTHO’s “Don’t Panic!” webinar on how to be an effective crisis communicator is on May 8 at 1 p.m.
ASTHO Legislative Alert: President Trump Releases FY26 Budget Proposal
ASTHO Webinar: Don't Panic! A Panel on How to be an Effective Crisis Communicator
JANSON SILVERS:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Monday, May 5, 2025. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
BRIAN WEAVER:
Local health departments have the statutory authority to go out and do an environmental lead investigation starting at 3.5 micrograms per deciliter, so they get to go at a lower level and respond to more children, and ultimately preventing more kids from being poisoned in Wisconsin.
SILVERS:
Brian Weaver, with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, tells us about an emergency rule to strengthen standards that protect children from lead exposure.
WEAVER:
We now recommend in Wisconsin that all children ages one and two are tested for lead. So, that means that children that reaches the age of one and two are tested. If they're above that age, but younger than the age of six and they haven't received a blood lead test yet, we recommend that that population also receive a blood lead test.
SILVERS:
The rule has already made a difference.
WEAVER:
In 2024, so we made those changes last year, last calendar year, we saw the highest number of children receiving a blood lead test in the past decade. So actually, testing increased 25% among one and two-year-olds just in that year alone.
SILVERS:
In addition to the emergency rule, the state is also trying to remedy the root causes of lead exposure, one of which is more than 350,000 homes that have lead-based paint hazards.
WEAVER:
And we currently have two programs, the 'Lead-Safe Homes' program and the 'More Like Home' loan program. So, these are two programs supported by state dollars which cover the cost of lead paint hazard remediation.
SILVERS:
A release on the emergency rule is online now. Click the link in the show notes to learn more.
ASTHO's Annie Evans recently teamed up with CDC to co-author an article about a recent project that created a definition of disability for use by the National Syndromic Surveillance Program.
ANNIE EVANS:
Disability is not comprehensively collected as a demographic in medical records, so this lack of data makes it extremely hard to parse out where there might be disproportionate impacts on people with disabilities on certain public health issues. So, there isn't a single definition of disability.
SILVERS:
Without a true definition, Evans says we can't know how well or how poorly we're taking care of this group of people.
EVANS:
In a medical setting, they may use a medical model which focuses on disability as an individual limitation that could be caused by a medical condition or some sort of trauma, compared to a social model of disability that may focus on societal barriers that can limit the way that a person with a disability can interact with the world.
SILVERS:
But now, Evans says we have a great starting point.
EVANS:
What that definition looked like is a list of existing medical codes related to disability, and this can help help agencies to track the impact of emergencies on people with disabilities.
SILVERS:
The full article that Evans co-authored was published in Medscape. We have a link in the show notes.
Also, a new ASTHO Legislative Alert details President Trump's FY26 discretionary budget proposal. The proposal outlines the administration's funding priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Learn more about what this means by reading ASTHO's Legislative Alert, and never miss an update when you sign up for those Legislative Alerts. Links to ASTHO's budget breakdown and the link to subscribe to the Legislative Alerts are in the show notes.
And finally, later this week, the much-anticipated 'Don't Panic! Panel on How to Be an Effective Crisis Communicator. This ASTHO webinar will feature speakers from Harvard, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, NPHIC, and the Public Health Communications Collaborative. Sign up by using the link in the show notes.
That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
