INC NEWS - Lead summit last night

[pat carstensen]

I attended the Lead Summit last night.  A lot of thought and effort has gone 
into how to better protect ourselves against lead poisoning.  See Herald-Sun 
article below.

The one thing the article doesn't mention is the woman who tested her yard 
for lead, found no significant levels, watched her neighbor pressure wash 
his house, tested her yard again and found significantly higher levels, and 
now can't let her child play in his own yard.  Cases like this may be rare, 
and there may be another side to the story, but this seems monstrously 
unfair.

Regards, pat

-------

City's lead testing scope may broaden





BY RAY GRONBERG : The Herald-Sun
gronberg at heraldsun.com
Apr 19, 2007 : 12:20 am ET

DURHAM -- Durham leaders may expand the city Water Management Department's 
lead testing program to cover a wider range of homes than federal 
regulations demand, and to coordinate it with other efforts to prevent 
children from being exposed to the poisonous element.

The testing expansion is part of a draft action plan unveiled Wednesday at a 
"lead summit" the city organized after its admitted breach of U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency strictures against lead in drinking water.

Members of the group that drafted the plan, the Durham Environmental Lead 
Coalition, favor expanded water testing because they don't think the testing 
regimen prescribed by federal and state regulators is stringent enough to 
catch all the problems that may crop up.

"The EPA requires [testing water in] a pool of houses in very narrow band of 
years," said Marie Lynn Miranda, a coalition member and director of Duke 
University's Children's Environmental Health Initiative. "One of the things 
we know from what happened in Washington, [D.C.], Greenville [N.C.] and 
Durham is that what the EPA recommends as testing is not necessarily 
sufficient to catch changes in water."

Miranda was referring to the federal agency's insistence that a North 
Carolina water system's lead-compliance testing target single-family houses 
built in 1983, 1984 and 1985. They were built just before the state banned 
the use of lead-based solder in household plumbing, and are thought by 
regulators to be the most vulnerable to lead problems as the element leaches 
from the solder into drinking water.

But she and others who have studied lead outbreaks like those in the cities 
she named are convinced they're just as likely to show up in older homes and 
in apartments. The poisoning case last year that led to the discovery of 
Durham's problem affected a child who was living in an apartment.

The coalition's proposed action plan recommends countering that by expanding 
the city's regular testing to include homes outside the 1983-85 window, 
making it easier for residents to drop off water samples for testing and 
doing more to encourage people to participate in the effort.

It also suggests testing water at licensed day care centers that operate in 
pre-1990 buildings, conducting annual tests of fountains and faucets in 
pre-1990 Durham schools, and adding water testing to work done at homes 
targeted by city programs to eliminate lead-based paint.

Finally, the coalition wants the county government to target the families of 
the 200-plus children who, in annual blood testing conducted by the county 
Health Department, prove to have low levels of lead in their bloodstream and 
explain to them how they can reduce their child's exposure.

They anticipate a favorable response, especially from families. "When it's 
your child, these straight federal standards out there are not enough to 
make you feel better," Miranda said.

Wednesday's summit was designed to publicize the draft plan, and gather 
feedback from the 70 or so people who attended. The coalition will work over 
its recommendation early next month.

Summit participants made it clear they want the city and county governments 
to be aggressive about spreading the word about lead hazards, using 
churches, neighborhood associations and other channels to inform people.

They also felt the city's housing inspectors have to be part of the program, 
and that the coalition should spell out a clearer strategy for helping 
children who have been exposed to lead -- no matter whether the poison 
reached them via paint chips, city water, cheap lead-based jewelry or other 
channels.

"We need to find a way to treat the people it's already happened to," said 
Richard McClellan. "They're being cheated out of life."

Lead poisoning cause brain and nervous-system damage in children. Its 
effects on adults and the elderly aren't as clear, although it is thought to 
contribute to hypertension. It's also known to pass from pregnant women to 
their unborn children.

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