Lead more likely to harm immigrant kids

NEW YORK - A new report showed Wednesday that immigrant children are five times more likely to suffer from lead poisoning than U.S.-born children in New York City.
The study in the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health also found that children who lived abroad within the previous six months — especially children from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico and Pakistan — were 11 times more likely to have lead poisoning.
The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said it is the first such study to look at lead poisoning in New York City's immigrant children.
The report studied 406 children in 2002, half of whom had lead poisoning. The study's author, Dr. Jessica Leighton, says it is likely the children were poisoned in their native countries, where regulations on environmental contaminants are not as strict.