Lead tests yield a bad surprise in one South Bend neighborhood

But it was a surprise to local health officials that one neighborhood on the near northwest side of South Bend — known as Census Tract 6 — had an unusually high percentage of children with elevated blood-lead levels in tests conducted from 2005 through 2015.

Blood-lead testing data for that decade show that 178 children — or nearly a third of the 568 children who were tested — had elevated blood-lead levels.

On average, 4 percent of the 41,300 children screened in Indiana in 2015 had blood-lead levels above 5 micrograms per deciliter, the threshold established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why is this decade-old problem just now coming to light?

The Indiana State Department of Health collects blood-lead testing data. But it wasn't broken down by census tracts and shared with county officials until earlier this fall, said Dr. Luis Galup, the health officer for St. Joseph County.