New Mexico

The New Mexico Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (NM CLPPP) was aware of gaps in follow-up blood lead testing for children who had elevated blood lead levels (BLL) on their arrival to the United States. Therefore, NM CLPPP sought to improve lead-related education for families, healthcare providers, and groups providing services to newly arriving refugees.

NM CLPPP collaborated with the Lutheran Family Services’ Refugee and Asylee program, University of New Mexico (UNM) Young Children’s Clinic, UNM Northeast Heights clinic, and the College of Population Health at UNM to conduct the following activities:

• NM CLPPP and the Lutheran Family Services’ Refugee and Asylee program translated health education materials into specific languages to distribute to refugees.
• NM CLPPP conducted home visits with staff members from the Lutheran Family Services’ Refugee and Asylee program for families with children who had elevated BLLs.
• NM CLPPP performed outreach and gave targeted messages to provider groups and organizations about blood lead testing guidelines. NM CLPPP also distributed lead poisoning prevention materials and called providers with reminders to retest children with elevated BLLs.
• UNM created and delivered a lead poisoning prevention presentation to newly arrived families.

Although the number of incoming refugees decreased from over 400 refugees in 2016 to approximately 50 refugees per year in 2017 and 2018, BLL testing among refugees in the state held steady at 700–800 tests per year from 2016 through 2018. Additionally, NM CLPPP was able to conduct more follow-up tests for children with BLLs of 5 micrograms per deciliter or higher.