as we mentioned at the top of the show much of the focus around lead poisoning has centered around exposure to dust from lead-based paint or contaminated drinking water from old pipes but there's a lesser known source that's getting more attention from doctors and experts it turns out pregnancy can lead to what's known as lead remobilization it's lead locked deep in Bones from childhood exposure that rep poisons the body and is ultimately passed on to the fetus it causes problems for both mom and baby now given New Jersey maternal Health crisis some lawmakers want to make it a requirement for all pregnant people to be screened for lead senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports lead is something that that that we know is related is associated with preclampsia it's uh associated with thrombosis It's associated with high blood pressure It's associated with low birth weight uh there's a bunch of things that led is associated with that are risk factors in pregnancy and yet there's no clinical guidance here in New Jersey or Across the Nation for screening people for lead exposure during pregnancy Brian Buckley has conducted research at Rucker University looking at pregnant moms and the impact of lead in the system during gestation we know that Mom passes lead to baby through the placenta okay when they do that baby's born lead burdened but even though the research is out there it's not been incl included in the state's conversation around maternal and infant mortality rates that are below the national average even though they've improved in recent years and black moms and babies are still significantly more likely to die from pregnancy related illness many of them are the same illnesses caused by lead it's a big surprise so you may not have any lead in your bloodstream until your last trimester and you'll have no idea that that's occurring Alise pivnik has spent her career working on lead prevention efforts for kids it occurred to her to look into the impact of lead on pregnant people and was shocked to learn that lead poisoning can actually reveal itself during the later months of pregnancy even if you never knew you were exposed so if you uh were exposed to lead as a child uh the lead locks in the bones where calcium was supposed to be so even if you've moved out of that that environment long ago when you are pregnant as an adult you may very well remobilize lead locked the bones when the uh the body is trying to pull out calcium to nurture the fetus it's called lead remobilization it locks into the bones during childhood and is most likely to be remobilized during the later months of pregnancy it can leave Mom struggling with health risks that have been among the key contributors of maternal deaths in New Jersey and it can leave baby with lead poisoning from day one it does pass through um the placenta to the fetus and we know that lead is very much implicated in in um infant uh infant problems at Birth smaller head circumference smaller stomachs lower birth weight and shorter stature all the things that we've seen contributing to uh High death rates for infants especially infants of color y it strikes me that one mom getting impacted by lead poisoning can then pass on through generations of people y right now there is no Universal screening for lead exposure in pregnant people here in New Jersey but a bill is before the legislature that would test in the first and third trimesters Eric Bean is a researcher with New Jersey's Department of Health who conducted lead testing on moms over several years out of University Hospital in Newark we've very quickly learned that it's very important to have that first prenatal test uh and then again we on that beginning of the third trimester um just to make sure that those levels are staying down um it's also very important for medical providers to understand where these risks are coming from um and especially when it comes to lead the the mother's entire lifetime worth of exposure but bean and others acknowledge it's impossible to know for sure whether a person's been impacted by lead exposure without blood tests lead can be contracted through paint dust water soil even applesauce was once found to contain lead and now certain coatings on older dishes are found to have lead we are thrilled to see this bill being discussed and we hope it will pass and uh we think it's an a Health Equity issue that um all PR pregnant people should have a lead test similar to what we do testing for gestational diabetes um if you uh test the pregnant person early they can make some corrections uh in their care or in their environment it's very important to also test in that third trimester because that is when you'll see the evidence of lead um coming back into the bloodstream from the bone and it turns out the treatments to reduce remobilization are actually pretty simple there are some micr nutrients like calcium iron um vitamin C and D and folate that out compete lead um and so if you have more of those than you have lead there's less likely uh there's a lower chance of the baby actually being able to absorb the lead and while the American Academy of Pediatrics is now adding pregnancy screenings to their recommendations these experts are calling for the guidance to be mainstreamed Buckley says it's an environmental justice issue that largely affects poorer people of color maternal mortality maternal morbidity are two of the biggest concerns that we have in New Jersey and we know that that's an EJ issue EJ communities are are unduly burdened with lead concentrations other environmental contaminants on top of not having the same level of Health Care Etc and for many living in food deserts where inadequate nutrition only exacerbates the lead remobilization for NJ Spotlight news I'm Joanna gagas support for the medical report is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey an independent lense of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association