Carla Campbell, MD

Dr. Carla Campbell is an assistant physician and full-time attending staff member at the Primary Care Center at University City, having received her staff appointment in 1992. She earned her medical degree from the University of Kentucky Medical School and completed special training there as well as at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York.

Her professional focus and special interests include public health, environmental medicine, preventive medicine, and lead poisoning.

Dr. Campbell served as clinical center staff at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia site under Principal Investigator Don Schwarz, MD.

Campbell published the definitive study on the effectiveness of professional home cleaning as a lead exposure intervention for TLC participants at the Philadelphia center.

At 18 months post-randomization, 73 of 165 Philadelphia TLC families (44%) accepted a second professional home cleaning. Kitchen floor geometric mean dust lead dropped from 12.5 to 4.5 µg/ft² immediately after cleaning (36% of precleaning levels) but rebounded to 13.6 µg/ft² at 3 months and 9.0 µg/ft² at 6 months. Windowsill geometric mean dust lead dropped from 82.8 to 9.0 µg/ft² immediately after cleaning but returned to levels not statistically different from precleaning values at 3 and 6 months.

There was no statistically significant difference in geometric mean blood lead levels between children whose homes were cleaned and those whose homes were not cleaned at any clinical visit. Children in high-exposure homes (GM 18.1 µg/dL) maintained blood lead levels approximately 4 µg/dL higher than those in low-exposure homes (GM 14.5 µg/dL) throughout follow-up—a difference unresponsive to the cleaning intervention.

This finding directly demonstrated that the TLC environmental intervention—professional home cleaning—was temporary. Dust lead rebounded to precleaning levels within 3–6 months, and the intervention produced no detectable effect on children's blood lead levels.

Campbell C, Schwarz DF, Rich DQ, Dockery DW. Effect of a follow-up professional home cleaning on serial dust and blood lead levels of urban children. Arch Environ Health. 2003;58(12):771–780. PMID: 15859512.

Dr. Campbell served as Chair of the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention (ACCLPP) from 2002 to 2006. Her work bridges the gap between clinical practice at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and broader environmental health advocacy.