Lead Levels

Amy Hough stopped by the Owings Mills Toys "R" Us store yesterday, but she avoided a line of playthings that her 2-year-old daughter Samantha loves. "I kind of bypassed the Dora aisle," Hough said, "even though it's her favorite." The 34-year-old mother was among the wave of concerned parents searching for help in responding to news of a huge toy recall that warned them that they might need to ditch Dora the Explorer and give Big Bird the boot - and left consumers wondering whether other dangers lurk in their children's toy boxes.

On a North Baltimore playground, the hobbyhorses' brightly colored coats reflect a new age: For the first time, the area is free of lead paint."A lot of people slow and admire them," said Wallace McGinniss, whose rowhouse affords a good view of the horses, jungle gyms shaped like a train and a snail, the new swing set and a hopscotch board. "They're talking about the horses catching their eyes."The AmeriCorps project to eliminate lead paint at Briscoe Playground in the 1500 block of Abbotston St. was the idea of Tarik Keene-El, 21, a West Baltimorean who signed up for President Clinton's national service program.

They're found, they're cured, they're returned home and, inevitably, the victims of lead poisoning are back -- for more medical help.Now the No. 1 treatment center in Maryland for children with lead poisoning,the Kennedy Krieger Institute, says it is prepared to end this revolving-door syndrome -- in some cases by moving families to other homes -- under a new $1 million contract with the state.It's all aimed at keeping children out of the hospital.The in-and-out pattern of hospitalization of hundreds of inner-city children living in older housing permeated by lead-paint chips or dust costs at least $30,000 per child annually in medical costs, plus thousands more over a lifetime for special education if the poisoning results in learning disabilities.

The time has come to attack Maryland's lead-poisoning crisis. The economic effects of that crisis are as obvious as auction ads in your Sunday newspaper. Week after week, dozens of inner-city investment properties containing lead paint are advertised for sale because their owners no longer can get liability insurance or financing for them.Most of them do not find a purchaser, even though these properties would sell for next to nothing. Instead they are boarded up and added to the spiraling number of abandoned rowhouses that threaten the stability of once-vibrant neighborhoods and decrease the pool of affordable housing available to low-income families.

The recipe for that great marinara sauce says nothing abou adding a pinch of aluminum, and lead is nowhere to be found on the menu for the elegant dinner served on the family's best china.Yet these and other unannounced ingredients -- copper, iron and plastic coatings -- can find their way into food and then into human beings through pots, pans, plates, microwave crisping sheets and other cooking and serving pieces.It only makes sense that subjecting metal utensils and ceramic plates to high temperatures, hot liquids, salty or acidic foods and sharp objects will jar loose bits of metal or cause minerals to seep from the abused surfaces.

An Elkridge family's run-in with lead poisoning has prompted the state curatorship program to warn participants in its historic restoration projects to guard against the danger."

A Baltimore demolition firm whose employees were poisoned by lead and removed by a doctor from the job has been fined by the state for failing to pay their wages during medical recovery, which is required by law.The Maryland Occupational Safety and Health office assessed $24,160 in fines against Berg Contracting Ltd., including one "willful" violation for knowingly refusing to pay the workers, who the agency said were exposed to high lead levels for more...

Exposure to low levels of lead, already linked to higher-than-average school failure rates in teen-agers, may cause learning deficiencies in children as young as 5 years old, according to a new study.Doctors in Boston found that 2-year-olds exposed to lead at levels far lower than the government deems hazardous developed learning disabilities by the time they were 5.The same study also discovered that in children exposed to lead as fetuses, learning comprehension returned by age 5 if they had no further exposure to lead after birth.

More than 600 domestic and imported wines tested by federal officials were found to contain lead, some at potentially dangerous levels for high-risk individuals, according to a report released by the U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.The report pointed to lead foil capsules -- or the closures -- that cover table wine corks as a chief cause of the toxic metal found by the researchers. "Significant lead contamination can result [in wine] from contact with the corrosion products of the lead capsule," the bureau stated in its report.

WASHINGTON -- A nationwide crackdown on 36 companies that allegedly discharge lead into the environment was announced jointly yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department.The EPA directed more than $10 million in fines against 12 facilities, while the Justice Department went to court against 24 companies in 19 states and Puerto Rico. The actions are designed to send a signal to industry that the federal government is serious about reducing lead levels, according to EPA Deputy Administrator Hank Habitch.

The number and percentage of Baltimore children with elevated levels of lead in the blood continued to decline last year, state and city health officials reported yesterday. Overall, 624 children, or 3.5 percent of those tested, had lead levels greater than 10 micrograms per deciliter, compared with 4.6 percent in 2006, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment. Thanks to lead abatement programs and education, the proportion has been declining steadily since 1998, when it was 22 percent.

The findings may not be surprising, but two new studies linking childhood lead exposure to later criminal activity are still extremely disturbing. It may not be news to anyone who has sat in juvenile court in Baltimore, where lawyers for youthful offenders have tried to use lead poisoning as an excuse for their clients' bad behavior. But in tracking the harmful, long-term effects of lead, the studies serve as another loud reminder - for Baltimore, Maryland and the nation - that no amount of this toxin in the body can be considered safe.

Amy Hough stopped by the Owings Mills Toys "R" Us store yesterday, but she avoided a line of playthings that her 2-year-old daughter Samantha loves. "I kind of bypassed the Dora aisle," Hough said, "even though it's her favorite." The 34-year-old mother was among the wave of concerned parents searching for help in responding to news of a huge toy recall that warned them that they might need to ditch Dora the Explorer and give Big Bird the boot - and left consumers wondering whether other dangers lurk in their children's toy boxes.

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators made it easier yesterday for health clinics to test children for lead poisoning, which could bolster prevention efforts - particularly in cities such as Baltimore with high levels of lead in older buildings. The Food and Drug Administration announced that it was allowing widespread sales of a laptop-size kit that indicates within three minutes whether a person has elevated levels of lead in the blood. "We don't have to wait [while] the lead level in a child's blood is affecting their development," said Dr. John O. Agwunobi, an assistant secretary for health who has worked as a pediatrician in city health clinics.

Declaring that the federal government has failed to protect children from lead, Baltimore's health commissioner has announced plans for a citywide ban on the sale of jewelry found to contain dangerous levels of the metal. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the commissioner, said that this month his agency surveyed six sellers of jewelry made for children and found four of 17 products had unacceptably high amounts of lead. "The fact that we keep finding lead in these products, despite the fact that it's unsafe, is a clear sign that the federal regulation has failed," he said yesterday at a news conference.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. trumpeted yesterday his commitment to eliminating lead poisoning through a state registry of pre-1950 rental units that was approved a decade ago under a different administration. Though he offered no new proposals or promises of additional funding, Ehrlich's visit to Baltimore sought to highlight gains that safeguard the health of city children. Standing outside the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning's headquarters in Canton, Ehrlich announced that a letter sent to owners of 50,000 unregistered properties during the summer yielded 17,000 responses.

An Annapolis city council member called yesterday for expanded testing for lead paint at two public housing complexes after sample tests revealed high levels of the toxic substance. In a letter yesterday, Alderwoman Cynthia A. Carter urged the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to test nearly 400 units in the College Creek Terrace and Harbor House communities. She also asked Anne Arundel County to test children living in the communities for lead poisoning. "We need to take action as quickly as possible," Carter said in an interview.

Lead levels now widely believed to be safe in children actually produce a severe impact on intellectual development, researchers report. Blood levels of lead below current federal and international guidelines of 10 micrograms per deciliter produce a surprisingly large 7.4-point drop in IQ, a U.S. team reports in today's New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers estimate that 1 in 50 U.S. children has lead levels above that guideline and that 1 in 10 has levels of 5 micrograms/deciliter or above - well within the dangerous range.

State laws designed to protect children from the dangers of lead paint may be a burden to some landlords, but the measures are working, a group of scientists was told yesterday. Susan Guyaux of the Maryland Department of Environment told scientists and regulatory officials at a Towson University seminar yesterday that the number of Maryland children with high lead levels in their blood has dropped steadily since 1996 when the state Lead Risk Reduction Act was adopted. The law requires landlords who rent out houses built before 1950 to have them tested for lead and to alert tenants to their rights regarding lead paint hazards.

Looking for new ways to prevent lead poisoning of children, doctors at Kennedy Krieger Institute are beginning the first study in Baltimore of the potential benefits of a vitamin program containing zinc. Doctors are seeking families to volunteer for the two-year project. Families will receive free vitamins, regular blood tests for their children, cleaning equipment and instructions on how to reduce the levels of toxic lead dust in their homes. Researchers suspect that regular consumption of a basic vitamin supplement with zinc may prevent children from absorbing the toxin commonly found in paint in older Baltimore homes.