The New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) has expanded its universal prenatal and newborn screening program for lead and mercury to Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick. The initiative aims to improve access to screening and enhance health outcomes for pregnant people and newborns.
The expansion is led by NJDOH’s Public Health and Environmental Laboratories’ New Jersey Biomonitoring Program, building on six years of piloting the project at University Hospital in Newark. At Saint Peter’s, 1,000 patients will initially be screened as part of the hospital’s Quality Improvement Process. Data from these screenings will help NJDOH assess heavy metal exposure rates among the prenatal population. If successful, the goal is to make such screenings a standard practice at the hospital.
Universal prenatal screening helps mothers and healthcare providers identify cases of lead or mercury exposure that might otherwise go undetected or untreated. Exposure to these metals during pregnancy can cause serious health issues for both mothers and infants, including preeclampsia, kidney damage, neurological harm, organ malformation, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, and even death.
Data from University Hospital show higher prevalence rates of harmful lead (13%) and mercury (60%) levels in pregnancies compared to conditions like gestational diabetes or preeclampsia. The need for widespread screening is especially urgent among foreign-born mothers due to increased risks of environmental exposure.
First Lady Tammy Murphy commented on the importance of early intervention: “We are determined to improve health outcomes for New Jersey’s moms and babies, and expanding access to prenatal and newborn screenings will help us lower the risk of lead or mercury poisoning through quick intervention,” she said. “This is a simple, but effective method to ensure New Jersey families are connected with timely support and treatment.”
Funding from the Fiscal Year 2024 budget under Nurture NJ supports technology enhancements for this program. The protocol includes testing at a mother’s first prenatal visit, follow-up at delivery for both mother and baby, as well as educational resources about heavy metal poisoning. When elevated levels are detected, patients receive coordinated care involving local departments of health, NJDOH programs focused on childhood lead exposure, environmental services divisions, community affairs agencies, and poison control centers.
Acting Health Commissioner Jeff Brown emphasized the impact: “It’s more than just identifying the risks and dangers; it’s about improving outcomes,” he said. “Testing mothers during pregnancy and babies when they’re born allows for the opportunity to provide guidance and treatment when it matters most. By taking actions to mitigate mothers’ and newborns’ risk of lead or mercury poisoning, health outcomes are changing for the better.”
Debra-Lynn Day-Salvatore, MD—chair of Medical Genetics at Saint Peter’s—expressed her support: “We are very excited at the opportunity to participate in this extremely successful public health initiative and to help promote universal heavy metal screening for New Jersey mothers and infants in the near future,” she said.
Since launching at University Hospital in 2019 over 27,000 tests have been conducted there. Data indicate that babies exposed to high levels of lead or mercury are significantly more likely—by 75%—to require intensive care admission; they also face six times higher odds of abnormal newborn screening results.
Dr. Onajovwe Fofah from University Hospital noted strong compliance with the program: “The program has a compliance rate of over 90% in both our ambulatory practice and intrapartum care at delivery,” he said. He credited a multidisciplinary approach with enabling early detection as well as multilingual education efforts that reduced heavy metal levels among exposed individuals.
William J. Lowe III, MD from Saint Peter’s stated: “We look forward to working with the Department of Health to expand the lead and mercury screening to New Brunswick and surrounding communities,” adding that comparing data between Newark and New Brunswick could broaden understanding about exposures across different regions.
The program was recently recognized as a Top 10 abstract by Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine section at an American Academy of Pediatrics conference in Denver in 2025. Looking ahead, NJDOH plans further expansions into additional hospitals and mobile units statewide.
