Lead Threat in Binghamton NY
Excerpts from the article:
Almost 30 years after it was banned from paint, and despite the recent recall of millions of toys and other products, lead -- a dangerous toxic metal -- still lurks in the homes of thousands of Southern Tier children.
Compounding the issue: Broome's children are less likely to be checked for lead than kids in most upstate counties -- though the test is readily available and the federal government says every child should be tested twice by age 2.
A Press & Sun-Bulletin review of state and county health department records, U.S. Census figures and federal housing data found that problems continue:
* Every year, dozens of Tier children are found to have dangerously high lead levels and dozens of others have enough lead in their systems to require medical attention. Pediatricians become concerned when a blood test shows lead levels above 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood. A microgram is a millionth of a gram; a deciliter is one-tenth of a liter.
In 2003, state figures show, 106 children in Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Tioga counties were found to have levels above 10. Another 14 had more than twice that amount in their bodies. And that doesn't take into account the hundreds of kids who aren't being screened.
Statewide, 4,533 children were identified in 2003 as having elevated lead levels. That many children would almost fill the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.
* Odds are that a Tier child will live in, be cared for at or regularly visit a house containing lead.
* Children born in Broome since 2000 remain less likely to be checked for lead than kids in most other upstate New York counties.
State figures show that only 43.3 percent of Broome babies born in 2000 and 2001 were tested before the age of 16 months, a rate lower than that in 47 of the 55 counties north of New York City. In 2004, county figures show, 952 of the 2,026 babies born in Broome weren't screened before age 2. That's despite a push by the state to have blood-lead screenings done on at least 80 percent of kids younger than 1, and the national health community's push to end lead poisoning by 2010.
"We're doing the screenings to see if a child is sick," said Broome County Lead-Poisoning Prevention Coordinator Bill Pedley. "But the emphasis really needs to be on prevention."
In the early 1990s, the city of Milwaukee pioneered a technique for making homes lead-safe. It focuses on replacing windows or repairing them by shaving the wood and repainting it, then covering part of the frame with vinyl or aluminum.
Milwaukee pays homeowners $160 per window to repair or replace them -- an offer extended to landlords, too, unless a child in their building turns up with elevated blood lead. Then, the landlord must pay the costs; if he fixes that property, he's eligible for aid for other properties.
The program has succeeded. In 1995, 39 percent of city kids had elevated lead levels in their blood; by 2006, it fell to 6.6 percent. Total cost: $53.5 million -- about two-thirds from federal grants.
Nevin wondered whether millions of children exposed as babies to lead through car exhaust would commit more-violent crimes than children exposed to lower levels. So he began comparing leaded-gas consumption through much of the 20th century with FBI crime statistics.
He found a "stunning" fit, he says. The trend lines match almost perfectly: Leaded-gas use climbed in the 1940s and fell in the early 1970s. Twenty-three years later, rates for violent crime followed in near unison. He also studied lead-paint levels from 1879 over the next 60 years, matching them to murder rates from 1900-59.
Nevin published his findings in the journal Environmental Research in 2000.
"People think this is just a 'city thing,'" said former Rochester school principal Ralph Spezio. In 1999, wondering why so many of his students needed expensive special-education services, he found high lead levels in 41 percent of the children. Among special-education students, it was 100 percent.
Also -
Gov't Info on Lead
Lead Test Kits
Almost 30 years after it was banned from paint, and despite the recent recall of millions of toys and other products, lead -- a dangerous toxic metal -- still lurks in the homes of thousands of Southern Tier children.
Compounding the issue: Broome's children are less likely to be checked for lead than kids in most upstate counties -- though the test is readily available and the federal government says every child should be tested twice by age 2.
A Press & Sun-Bulletin review of state and county health department records, U.S. Census figures and federal housing data found that problems continue:
* Every year, dozens of Tier children are found to have dangerously high lead levels and dozens of others have enough lead in their systems to require medical attention. Pediatricians become concerned when a blood test shows lead levels above 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood. A microgram is a millionth of a gram; a deciliter is one-tenth of a liter.
In 2003, state figures show, 106 children in Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Tioga counties were found to have levels above 10. Another 14 had more than twice that amount in their bodies. And that doesn't take into account the hundreds of kids who aren't being screened.
Statewide, 4,533 children were identified in 2003 as having elevated lead levels. That many children would almost fill the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.
* Odds are that a Tier child will live in, be cared for at or regularly visit a house containing lead.
* Children born in Broome since 2000 remain less likely to be checked for lead than kids in most other upstate New York counties.
State figures show that only 43.3 percent of Broome babies born in 2000 and 2001 were tested before the age of 16 months, a rate lower than that in 47 of the 55 counties north of New York City. In 2004, county figures show, 952 of the 2,026 babies born in Broome weren't screened before age 2. That's despite a push by the state to have blood-lead screenings done on at least 80 percent of kids younger than 1, and the national health community's push to end lead poisoning by 2010.
"We're doing the screenings to see if a child is sick," said Broome County Lead-Poisoning Prevention Coordinator Bill Pedley. "But the emphasis really needs to be on prevention."
In the early 1990s, the city of Milwaukee pioneered a technique for making homes lead-safe. It focuses on replacing windows or repairing them by shaving the wood and repainting it, then covering part of the frame with vinyl or aluminum.
Milwaukee pays homeowners $160 per window to repair or replace them -- an offer extended to landlords, too, unless a child in their building turns up with elevated blood lead. Then, the landlord must pay the costs; if he fixes that property, he's eligible for aid for other properties.
The program has succeeded. In 1995, 39 percent of city kids had elevated lead levels in their blood; by 2006, it fell to 6.6 percent. Total cost: $53.5 million -- about two-thirds from federal grants.
Nevin wondered whether millions of children exposed as babies to lead through car exhaust would commit more-violent crimes than children exposed to lower levels. So he began comparing leaded-gas consumption through much of the 20th century with FBI crime statistics.
He found a "stunning" fit, he says. The trend lines match almost perfectly: Leaded-gas use climbed in the 1940s and fell in the early 1970s. Twenty-three years later, rates for violent crime followed in near unison. He also studied lead-paint levels from 1879 over the next 60 years, matching them to murder rates from 1900-59.
Nevin published his findings in the journal Environmental Research in 2000.
"People think this is just a 'city thing,'" said former Rochester school principal Ralph Spezio. In 1999, wondering why so many of his students needed expensive special-education services, he found high lead levels in 41 percent of the children. Among special-education students, it was 100 percent.
Also -
Gov't Info on Lead
Lead Test Kits
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