In Camden, where lead has also been a problem.

Virtua Health is holding free screenings for kids to have their blood tested to see if lead levels are elevated in their systems.

As Raven Santana reports, it's an important program there.

Since Camden's kids have alarmingly high levels of lead poisoning.

Virtua's pediatric mobile services is using bubbles as a helpful strategy to test more than a dozen kids under the age of six for lead at the Acelero Learning Kroc Center in Camden.

Camden City, at least.

With our testings, we test about 14% of the children have elevated lead levels, and that's compared to 2.5 children nationally.

The clinic is one of eight being held by Virtua Health this month in an effort to help detect lead poisoning in children.

Most doctor's offices do not provide the lead screening.

They are given a script to go to a lab to get a blood draw.

And a lot of families don't have the time to do that.

May not have the financial means to do that, may not have the transportation.

But I think one of the main things is they don't understand why they need to do it.

They don't understand how devastating lead and elevated blood levels in the blood can be.

It's neurological.

It can be irreversible.

Neuro neurological damage.

So developmental delays, speech and hearing issues, vision issues, a lot of behavioral issues you see in children.

And then that leads to could be aggression, mental health status later in life.

Look, we're going to play a bubble game.

Registered nurse Susan McCleary has the important task of testing children for lead.

She says the process is just as quick and easy as the results.

Do a tiny little prick in their finger.

Most of the times the kids do not feel at all.

After I get that specimen, I actually run it on the analyzer that we have here on the van.

And it takes 3 minutes for me to get that result.

All of our results are reported to the state daily, for there are lead levels that are made by the CDC and the state of New Jersey.

They want it to be under 3.3, so our machine will detect anything over 3.3.

But over five is the level where we recommend that they get the venous draw.

And we do this even on kids six and under, because that is when the brain is still growing and vulnerable for lead to interfere with that growth.

In addition to the free blood testing virtua pediatric mobile services also offered other health screenings and resources to raise awareness about lead exposure.

Today, we're also offering dental screenings, and that is because that can affect the enamel growth on the teeth.

And a lot of children who have elevated blood levels have a lot of oral health issues, a lot of cavities, things like that.

We also have a Saint Joseph's Carpenter society here.

They do lead abatement in homes because it's very important for us to also screen homes for lead, not just kids.

Here in Camden, we have a majority of our homes are built.

Before 1978 where lead was outlawed.

A majority of homes have lead paint in them.

Not only the kids are eating the lead paint, it's the lead dust.

That is the biggest issue.

When you have an old house or windows, an old doors, you're opening and closing the door jamb or the window frame the dust emits and then you're breathing it in.

According to new research published over the summer, despite successful efforts to reduce lead exposure from places like lead paint and water pipes, the toxic metal still can be found in some consumer products.

Kate Porterfield, The lead author of the study by Pure Earth, found those consumer products may be the main source of lead exposure in some cases, especially those imported from other countries with more lax or even nonexistent laws around limiting lead levels.

We suspect that a lot of these products are being hand-carried through travel or through the mail, and they also might be purchased through online retailers like eBay and Etsy.

And for this reason, the U.S. regulations just can't get to those products the way they could traditionally imported ones.

So they're slipping through the cracks.

Emerson says the mobile led testing will extend throughout the year to combat what she believes is a lead poisoning crisis here in Camden.

For NJ Spotlight News.

I'm Raven Santana.