There is no federal team in Milwaukee responding to lead crisis, city health department says, contrary to RFK Jr. claim
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services does not have a team in Milwaukee helping with the city's response to lead poisoning in public schools, the Milwaukee Health Department said, contrary to what the federal agency's secretary suggested recently.
On May 20, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was testifying before a Senate subcommittee when he was asked about a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that had been laid off, part of sweeping layoffs at the agency in April.
The branch was responsible for investigating and preventing lead poisoning, and had been working with Milwaukee health officials in response to widespread lead contamination in Milwaukee Public Schools.
After the layoffs, that collaboration halted, Milwaukee health officials said.
"We are continuing to fund the program," Kennedy said on May 20, referring to the CDC's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. "We have a team in Milwaukee, and we're giving laboratory support to the analytics in Milwaukee, and we're working with the health department in Milwaukee."
But Caroline Reinwald, a spokesperson for the Milwaukee Health Department, disputed that there is an HHS or CDC team in Milwaukee helping with the lead poisoning response, saying there was no such team.
"We have not received any federal epidemiological or analytical support related to the lead crisis in Milwaukee Public Schools," she said in a May 21 statement.
Multiple schools have been closed for lead remediation, and plans are in place to clear lead paint hazards from dozens of schools before the next school year begins.
The only federal involvement Reinwald pointed to was a two-week visit earlier this month from a single person on a CDC fellowship who helped with setting up a new laboratory instrument to ensure it was working properly.
"While the instrument will be used to process lead samples from across the city, including those related to MPS, this assistance was requested independently of the MPS situation and was unrelated to any school-based lead testing," Reinwald said.
She said the person was sent to fulfill a narrow role specific to setting up the piece of equipment.
"While MHD would have welcomed federal support, we continue to move forward without it," she said.
Before the layoffs at HHS, Milwaukee health officials had asked the CDC for on-site help responding to widespread lead contamination in Milwaukee Public Schools.
Their request, made in late March, asked for a small team of CDC experts to come to Milwaukee to lend their expertise and help develop a plan for large-scale testing of MPS students for lead poisoning.
After the layoffs, the CDC denied the city's request for help, pointing to "the complete loss of our Lead Program."
"We don't have any contacts at the CDC for childhood lead poisoning," Totoraitis said in mid-April. "This is a pretty unprecedented scenario to not have someone to turn to at the CDC."
Sarah Volpenhein can be reached at svolpenhei@gannett.com or at 414-607-2159.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: City disputes RFK Jr. claim that team on lead hazards is in Milwaukee
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