Scenario
The Hazard of Lead Poisoning

Background
Miami Herald: New suit, old hazard: lead poisoning of kids [page 1] [page 2]

Q and A with Wendy Blair Stephan

Links

Background:
Miami Herald: New suit, old hazard: lead poisoning of kids

Published Tuesday, September 4, 2001
By Andrea Robinson (arobinson@herald.com)

HARMFUL TO YOUNG
Health officials say lead is most harmful to children younger than 6 because it is easily absorbed into their growing bodies and interferes with the developing brain and other organs and systems. Pregnant women can also transfer lead they ingest to a fetus.

Lead-based paint was widely used in homes until it was banned in 1978.

At high levels, lead can cause kidney damage, seizures, coma and death.

Children are most commonly exposed to lead by inhaling lead-paint dust or eating paint flakes, which have a sweet taste they find alluring. Leighton said that's just what the child did.

Although lead-poisoning cases have declined nationally, the dust and flakes are often found in neighborhoods with poorly maintained houses over 50 years old.

Under such conditions, children are more likely to eat paint chips or inhale dust collected on floors and window sills. Leighton contends Leona Walker's apartment had all of that.

Florida International University researchers and activists contend that as word spreads about the perils of lead poisoning, lawsuits will become more common.

"There will be more lawsuits, no doubt about it. People are speaking out now," said FIU professor Janvier Gasana, author of a recent study about lead hazards in some Miami-Dade neighborhoods. He is a medical doctor and a professor in FIU's public health department.

"Lawyers have been calling me . . . every week trying to grab whatever data they can get,'' he said.

His study concluded that more than 55 percent of homes in Liberty City and Little Haiti show elevated lead levels and 230,000 Miami-Dade children are at risk of lead exposure, including kids in Little Havana, Homestead and Florida City.

Properties in Coconut Grove were not included in that study, but Gasana said some houses are more than 50 years old and poorly maintained, making them susceptible to lead risks.

Gasana and other local activists recently formed a statewide group to target childhood lead poisoning. The organization will identify high-risk areas with distressed housing and teach residents how to get help to clean up the hazards.

SEEING SYMPTOMS
It also will help them identify symptoms of lead poisoning and seek treatment.

So far the group has begun pulling more data on reported lead poisoning cases from other areas of Miami-Dade, as well as Broward and Palm Beach counties, to develop maps to track numbers of cases. Team members hope to release a report later this month.

Eileen Quinn, a spokeswoman with the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, said an NAACP's announcement in July that it would make lead poisoning a civil rights issue was a huge boost.

"It's hard to keep this issue front and center. People think because we fazed out leaded gas, the problem went away, but it didn't," Quinn said. "Lead hazards still exist in homes. it's still a threat to children, and children are getting poisoned." [page 1]