Maine lead poisonings due to lead tracked into cars.

The AP reports that six cases of childhood lead poisoning "in Maine last year came from an unusual source -- lead dust tracked into the family car." Officials from the CDC and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services said that the cases were "the first ever attributed to lead dust on childhood safety seats. The car seats themselves weren't the source; the inside of family cars were contaminated through a parent's workplace." The CDC explained that children's parents, who worked in paint removal or metals recycling, did not change and shower before going home, and so tracked lead dust into their cars and onto children's car seats. Then, "Kids chew on the sides of those seats ... Or they put a cookie down" on the seat and then eat it, Mary Jean Brown, chief of the CDC's Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch said. "Maine officials said they now include checks of cars and child safety seats in their lead investigations."