A company that makes tests for lead poisoning has agreed to resolve criminal charges that it concealed for years a malfunction that resulted in inaccurately low results. It can be It’s the latest in a long-running saga involving Massachusetts-based Magellan Diagnostics, which will , according to the Department of Justice. While many of the fault-prone devices were used from 2013 to 2017, some were being recalled .
The Justice Department said the malfunction produced inaccurate results for “potentially tens of thousands” of children and other patients. Doctors don’t consider any level of lead in the blood to be safe, especially for children. Several U.
S. cities, including Washington, D.C.
, and Flint, Michigan, have struggled with widespread lead contamination of their water supplies in the last two decades, making accurate tests critical for public health. It’s possible faulty Magellan kits were used to test children for lead exposure into the early 2020s, based on the recall in 2021. Here’s what parents should know.
Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing. The inaccurate results came from three Magellan devices: LeadCare Ultra, LeadCare II, and LeadCare Plus. One, the LeadCare II, uses finger-stick samples primarily and accounted for more than half of all blood lead tests conducted in the U.
S. from 2013 to 2017, according to the Justice Department. It was often used in physician offices to check children’s lead levels.
The other two could also be use.