Governor Chris Sununu recently struck a blow in favor of childhood lead poisoning when he vetoed HB 342.
The bill would have changed the health form that parents fill out when their child enters school or child-care to include the results of a blood lead test. Parents who do not get their kid this routine test would be provided with a brochure explaining the risk that lead exposure poses to their child’s developing brain, with the goal of encouraging them to get their child tested.
Such things have been effective in encouraging blood lead testing in other states.
There are, of course, opportunities for parents to opt out of all this based on religious beliefs or whatever half-baked ideas they might have picked up listening to right-wing talk radio. It’s important to recognize that nobody is forcing parents to do anything here.
Although, let’s be clear: anyone who intentionally dodges lead testing for their child is being a reckless and neglectful parent - straight up. The impact of lead exposure on a child’s brain can be lifelong and debilitating, and all children deserve parents who will protect them from this danger.
Current law – signed by Gov. Sununu in 2018 – requires that kids aged one and two get tested for blood lead test. Compliance with that law isn’t great – in 2021, 40% of two-years-olds and 50% of one-year-olds did not get tested. In particular, a lot of testing was skipped during the pandemic years, meaning that a lot of children will soon be entering school who have never been tested at all.
But the Chris Sununu of 2023 wants to make sure that nothing is done about this. He called the bill an “unnecessary check on parents.”
Its interesting to me that Sununu would reach for the “parents rights” rhetoric here, a la Moms for Liberty and Ron DeSantis. It’s a dog whistle as loud as a tuba.
As a parent myself, I take particular exception to this rhetoric.
But for all their bluster about Critical Race Theory, panic about transgender people using the bathroom, and deep concern over woke library books, it’s funny how Republican leaders don’t give a fig about something that actually harms children.