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PROGRESS TOWARD A LEAD-FREE ENVIRONMENT |
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PROGRESS TOWARD A LEAD-FREE ENVIRONMENT |
People gathered at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research on April 22, 1997, to celebrate Earth Day and learn more about "Progress towards a lead-free environment." The good news: lead poisoning rates and blood-lead levels are dropping in the United States. The bad news: inner city populations face the biggest risks and there is still a long way to go in the battle against this preventable disease. The following virtual symposium highlights each speaker's comments about how lead impacts our environment, health and well-being.
NIEHS's role
Ken Olden, Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
An 88 percent drop in U.S. blood-lead levels during a short time makes lead poisoning one of the nation's public health success stories, according to Ken Olden, Director of the National Institutes of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS). However, not all share in the success. More than one-third of children in cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Boston and New York City still have blood-lead levels in excess of the Centers for Disease Control's old standard of 25 µg per deciliter of blood.
Hoping to reverse this trend even further, the NIEHS supports about $13 million of basic research. One study found that low lead levels of 10 µgrams per deciliter of blood causes a three to five point drop in IQ.
NIEHS also funds other specialized research projects and clinical studies aimed at understanding, treating and preventing lead-based health problems in the United States. Some of these include:
- the Lead Poisoning Prevention Trial involves clinical testing of a treatment pill (with the drug succimer) to reduce blood-lead levels, remove lead from soft tissues (brain) and prevent lead from settling in soft tissue.
- determining if a women's blood lead during pregnancy comes from the environment (prevention can reduce the amount) or from the mother's bone (intervention may not be possible)
- developing a noninvasive X-ray florescent technique to accurately measure bone lead concentrations.
- exploring the relationship between lead levels in senior citizens, veterans and African Americans and the high incidence of hypertension and kidney disease in these populations in order to determine if lead is a major risk factor for these types of diseases.
Lead soil trends
Howard Mielke, Associate Professor of Environmental Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana
A steady stream of lead has entered the environment during this century from a few major sources: leaded paint, leaded gasoline, tin food and beverage cans, drinking water and industry. As Howard Mielke points out in this graph, the use of leaded paint peaked during the 1920s and gradually fell off until its ban in the 1970s. Leaded gasoline spewed 250,000 tons per year of the heavy metal into the environment during the 1970s before its use was curtailed in 1986. Most of this lead settled out into the soil and is now the biggest lead poisoning threat to some children, according to Mielke's research.
The Xavier University of Louisiana professor has found that soil lead concentrations relate to city size, nearness to city centers and distance from houses or roads. In general, larger older cities have more soil lead contamination than smaller older cities. Inner city areas with historical heavy traffic congestion, have higher soil lead levels than outer lying residential or suburban areas. And soil near building foundations and streets have more lead than soils in yard areas.
Lead soil or dust inside and outside the home poses a health threat because it is easily eaten (hand to mouth contact) or breathed in by children playing or living in these areas. Keeping a clean, dust-free home or business and covering exposed soil outdoors reduces exposure.
New Orleans' lead programs
Connie McLaurin-Daniels, Program Director, Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, Department of Health , City of New Orleans, Louisiana
What do you do if you think your child was exposed to lead or has lead poisoning? The best thing is to call your local or state government office in charge of lead-related illnesses. In New Orleans, that means you might talk to Connie McLaurin-Daniels and participate in the lead poisoning prevention program.
The program follows guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control to identify, educate and prevent lead poisoning. During 1996, 9,000 children visiting the seven New Orleans' public health clinics were screened. Of those, 300 were at risk for lead exposure while 120 had blood-lead levels at or higher than 20 µgrams per deciliter of blood.
The program actively follows those children with blood-lead levels greater than 20 µgrams per deciliter of blood. Specialists visit the child's home, day care center or anywhere else the child spends a lot of time to identify hazards and counsel the family on how to eliminate the lead sources.
"It is stressed to the parents the part of getting the child away from the source or the source away from the child," says McLaurin-Daniels. Since the program does not emphasize abatement, families are shown temporary solutions such as covering an area where old paint is flaking or chipping.
Most parents are receptive to the suggestions but some are not. If blood-lead levels continue to rise, the child is hospitalized and given chelation therapy.
"In our program we stress education," explains McLaurin-Daniels. "If you know of anyone, perhaps yourself, that happens to live in a house that's pre-1978 and need to be tested for lead, please do so. Or if you have children that live in those homes have them tested for lead."
Community outreach
Laverne Lassai, Community Representative, New Orleans, Louisiana
As far as Laverne Lassai is concerned, everything you hear about lead's health effects is true. She should know. Not only does she work with children affected by lead, but her best friend's daughter suffers permanent health consequences from lead poisoning and her daughter and grandchild were treated for lead exposure.
Devoting her life to the cause, Lassai works everyday with children in several New Orleans communities and is involved in all aspects of public housing lead abatement projects.
"I'm coming from a personal experience with my best friend's daughter," tells Lassai. "She is now 18 years old, and she was affected by lead poisoning."
When the friend's daughter started school at age 7, she was put into special education classes and moved from classroom to classroom. Finally, she was diagnosed with lead poisoning but it had already taken an irreversible toll on her brain that is still apparent today.
Sometimes, medical treatment improves a lead-affected child's intelligence and demeanor, but doctors acknowledge that permanent damage occurs far too often.
"I work with these kids and I am telling you you have to have the patience of Job to deal with these kids because they are so hyper and so active" Lassai says. "They're just not normal so we have them tested for lead, and we're finding out that a lot of our children that we deal with are affected by lead."
A lifetime of experiences drives Lassai to personally dedicate her life to educate others about lead poisoning's disastrous health affects. By sharing her stories with the local community and others around the country, she hopes to better protect the health and welfare of our children and grandchildren.
A reception honoring Earth Day and the Earth Day Goddess (center
of table) followed the symposium.
http://www.tmc.tulane.edu/ecme/leadhome/symposium.html
