Can Children Get Free Health Testing Through Clearway?

If you raised your children in northeast Wichita, if your grandchildren live there now, if you yourself grew up in the neighborhoods near 29th and Grove, this article is for you.

Yes. Children are eligible for free health testing through Clearway Testing. There is no age restriction. No minimum time in the area. No insurance required.

This is what you need to know.

Quick Facts About Children and Clearway Testing:

• Children of all ages are eligible for free health testing through Clearway Testing partners
• Adults who were children in the affected area are also eligible and should consider getting tested
• Testing is free through December 31, 2026 at multiple Wichita-area clinics
• No insurance is required
• A nurse or health professional personally calls with results and next steps

Why Children Deserve Special Attention in This Situation

How Children Process Environmental Chemical Exposure Differently

Children are not simply small adults when it comes to environmental chemical exposure. Their bodies process chemicals differently. Pound for pound, children breathe more air, drink more water, and absorb more of what is in their environment relative to their body weight than adults do. Their organs are still developing. Their immune systems are still maturing. And the health effects that take years or decades to appear in adults can have their roots in exposures that happened during childhood.

The chemicals at the center of the 29th and Grove contamination are trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE). Both are classified as human carcinogens by major health agencies including the EPA, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Both have documented links to serious health conditions that often develop quietly, without symptoms, over long spans of time.

For children who lived, played, attended school, or spent significant time in the affected area, that exposure history is part of their health story, whether they are five years old today or forty-five.

Understanding How Children Were Exposed

The Vapor Intrusion Pathway in Homes and Schools

The contamination plume from the Union Pacific railyard runs 2.9 miles south through northeast Wichita, from the railyard near K-96 highway and I-135 down to Murdock Avenue. Groundwater in this zone sits between 14 and 25 feet below the surface. Children growing up in homes, attending schools, and spending time in daycare or community spaces above that plume were potentially exposed through a process called vapor intrusion.

Vapor intrusion happens when TCE and PCE in contaminated groundwater slowly evaporate from the soil and migrate upward into buildings through foundation cracks, pipe openings, and floor drains. The vapors enter indoor air at levels that are typically odorless and invisible. There is no warning. No smell. Nothing to indicate that anything unusual is happening in the air of a home or school.

Children spend more time indoors than adults and at lower heights where vapors can concentrate. A child playing on the floor of a home, attending school, or sleeping in a bedroom above the contamination plume may have accumulated exposure over years of daily activity in that space.

Beyond vapor intrusion, children who were outside in the area had environmental contact through soil, and children whose families used private well water rather than city water had potential exposure through drinking water. The city of Wichita’s public water supply was not affected by the contamination, but private wells in the area are a separate matter.

Two Groups of Children Who Need to Know About This

Current Children in the Affected Area

The first group is current children, kids who live in the affected area today or who have lived there recently. For these children, the value of testing is establishing a clear health baseline, identifying any current effects, and ensuring that ongoing exposure is understood and monitored. Parents and guardians of children currently living in or near the contamination zone are encouraged to contact a Clearway Testing partner to discuss what testing options are right for their child’s age and situation.

Adults Who Were Children in the Area

The second group is adults who were children in the affected area. Someone who grew up in or around the Millair neighborhood in “North Side” in the 1980s and 1990s, who played in that neighborhood every day after school, whose family lived in a home above the contamination plume, is not simply a former resident. They are someone whose childhood body was exposed to a known carcinogen during a period of development when the body is most vulnerable to environmental harm. And the documented latency period between TCE exposure and related cancer development, which runs from 18 to 34 years, means that many of those people are now adults in their thirties, forties, and fifties, precisely the window when related health effects are most likely to emerge.

What the Research Tells Us About Children and TCE

Developmental Risks and Long-Term Health Associations

The science on children and TCE exposure is sobering in some specific areas, and important to understand clearly and without alarm.

Studies have both found an association between maternal TCE exposure during pregnancy and congenital heart defects in offspring. The EPA and multiple state health agencies have specifically flagged pregnant women and young children as priority groups for minimizing TCE exposure because of this developmental concern. The U.S. EPA derived special indoor air guidance values for TCE that are specifically intended to protect developing fetuses, reflecting how seriously the scientific community takes this exposure pathway for the youngest and most vulnerable people.

Beyond cardiac development, TCE exposure during childhood has been studied in relation to immune system effects, neurological development, and the long-term cancer risks that apply to adults. A long-term study from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which followed people who were exposed to PCE-contaminated drinking water as children and in utero, found measurable long-term health associations when those individuals were followed into adulthood. That research underscores a point that is central to why Clearway Testing exists for children: the consequences of childhood exposure to these chemicals are not necessarily immediate, but they are real, and they are best addressed through early detection and monitoring.

A KDHE health study finalized in April 2023 found elevated liver cancer rates in the 29th and Grove study area. Liver cancer and kidney cancer, the conditions most strongly linked to TCE exposure, typically develop without symptoms until they have progressed significantly. Testing now, for both children and adults who were children in the area, creates a health baseline that gives physicians something to work with and gives families the information they need to stay ahead of any developing issue.

What Testing Looks Like for Children

Free Screenings Through Clearway Partner Clinics

Clearway Testing partner clinics work with families regularly and are experienced in explaining the process clearly to parents, guardians, and children. Testing through Clearway partners is free through December 31, 2026 and includes health screenings designed to evaluate organ function and check for health effects that may be linked to past exposure to TCE or PCE.

Testing through Clearway partner clinics includes:

Test	What It Evaluates
Complete blood count	Blood health, immune function, anemia screening
Comprehensive metabolic panel	Liver function, kidney function, blood glucose, electrolytes
Urinalysis	Kidney health, early signs of organ stress
Basic medical checkup	General health assessment, varies by location
Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) test	Liver health screening, at select locations
Abdominal ultrasound	Organ imaging, at select locations for qualifying patients

These tests do not look for TCE or PCE directly in a child’s body. They assess how the body is functioning and check for signs of any health effects that may be associated with past chemical exposure. After testing, a nurse or health professional from the Clearway program will call the parent or guardian personally to explain results, answer questions, and identify any next steps needed. If results indicate something that needs follow-up care, families are connected to trusted local providers. Nothing is left unexplained.

What If My Child Seems Perfectly Healthy?

This is the question most parents ask, and it deserves a direct answer.

The health conditions most strongly linked to TCE and PCE exposure, including kidney cancer, liver cancer, and lymphoma, do not announce themselves with obvious symptoms in their early stages. By the time a person notices something wrong, whether that person is a child or an adult, the condition has often been developing quietly for a significant period of time.

The purpose of this testing is not to find a problem you already know about. It is to find anything that may be developing before it progresses, when treatment options are most effective and outcomes are best. A healthy-seeming child with a history of exposure in the contamination zone is exactly the right candidate for this screening, because early detection is where the testing program does its most important work.

For Adults Who Were Children in the Area

If you grew up in northeast Wichita and are now an adult, your childhood exposure history puts you squarely in the eligibility criteria for Clearway Testing, and in some cases in the middle of the latency window when TCE-related health effects are statistically most likely to appear.

You do not need to still live in the area. You do not need to feel sick. You do not need documentation of where you lived as a child. If you grew up in the neighborhoods between I-135, Grove Street, K-96, and Murdock Avenue, including ZIP codes 67214 and 67219, reach out to a Clearway Testing partner and get screened. It is free, it is fast, and it can give you real information about your health that your doctor needs to know.

Where to Get Tested

Clearway Testing Partner Clinics:

• GraceMed Health Clinic | 316-866-2000 | gracemed.org
• HealthCore Clinic | 316-691-0249 | healthcoreclinic.org
• Hunter Health | 316-262-2415 | hunterhealth.org
• Love Clinic and Med Spa | 316-669-4770 | loveclinicmedspa.com
• Wichita Black Nurses Association | 316-249-1926 | wichitabna.org

If you are homebound and cannot travel to a clinic, contact the Wichita Black Nurses Association at 316-882-1778 to inquire about a free at-home visit.

Take the Clear Step Forward

Whether you are a parent scheduling testing for a child who lives in the area today, a parent whose now-adult children grew up in that neighborhood, or an adult who was yourself a child in northeast Wichita, the path forward is the same. Contact a Clearway Testing partner. Get the screening. Understand what your health picture looks like.

The testing is free through December 31, 2026. The information you get from this screening belongs to you and your family.