Fwd: Lead: An omnipresent poison

[Guest guest]

Lead: An omnipresent poison

*A St. sburg Times/tampabay.com special report:* You

may

be surprisd at all the places lead might be lurking in your

home. Or the everyday items that contain lead. Or the impact

some say it can have on a child's IQ.

By LEONORA LAPETER ANTON and ILYCE MECKLER, Times Staff Writers

Published January 13, 2008

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/13/Worldandnation/Lead__An_omnipresent_

..shtml

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Shayne Mills and Staley watch certified lead assessor Joe

Zwissler test a family antique for lead during an inspection of their

new rental home in St. sburg's Old Northeast neighborhood. The

couple is expecting a daughter this month.

*Special report:* Exposing hidden lead

<http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2008/reports/hidden-lead/>

photo

[Martha Rial | Times]

photo

[ Borchuck | Times]

and Rob Breakiron watch their son Noah, 4, play in their

Waterchase

home. The Breakirons found out in 2006 that Noah had a lead level of

36,

more than seven times the normal level. After treatments, a recent

test

came back with a level of 5.7.

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--

photo

[Martha Rial | Times]

Staley asks inspector Joe Zwissler if the doorway scratches

in

her St. sburg rental home contain lead. Zwissler found enough

lead

in the house that Staley and her boyfriend feel that they'll have to

move rather than let their baby live there.

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--

When Joe Zwissler enters a home with his X-ray gun, he knows he's

likely

to find what he is looking for somewhere. It's just a matter of where.

Zwissler hunts for lead, a metal that in extremely high doses can

kill

young children.

Recently, Staley, eight months pregnant, summoned Zwissler

to

the 1920s house she and her boyfriend are renting in St. sburg.

Like many parents today, they're worried: Many items they once

thought

safe may now pose a lead hazard, concerns sparked by the seemingly

endless toy recalls.

As Zwissler, 51, points his X-ray fluorescence analyzer throughout

the

house, Staley and her boyfriend, Shayne Mills, pull out other items

for

him to check: a sunset-colored fruit bowl, baby spoons, a rattle, a

ceramic music box for the baby's room, chess sets from Poland and

Peru.

What Zwissler finds will shock Staley and Mills and force them to

make a

tough decision: Will they have to find a new home just a month before

the baby is due?

" We're new parents, " Staley said. " We're freaking out about

everything.

Why do we have to worry about lead? "

* * *

Lead's greatest victims are children under 6 years of age. It is

easily

absorbed into their growing bodies, and affects the developing brain,

the central nervous system and the kidneys.

Up until about 15 years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention required pediatricians to routinely screen infants' blood

for

lead.

After lead was removed from gasoline and paint in the 1970s, the

number

of kids with lead poisoning dropped. The screening requirement was

scrapped -- except for children on Medicaid who are more likely to

live

in older homes with lead paint.

But some experts talk about a hidden danger that may lurk in its

place:

low-level lead exposure. Some doctors believe it may be on the

upswing

as lead-tainted toys and other consumer products have made their way

into American stores from places like China in the past few years.

The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates at least a million

children

in the United States have been exposed to lead.

" I think we're seeing the tip of the iceberg of how many kids are in

the

(low) blood lead level, " said Dr. R. , associate

professor

of pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina and co-

author

of an American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement on lead. " Many

children don't get tested unless there's a problem. ... But I think

we're getting more and more parents who are concerned enough that

they're starting to ask for a lead test. "

The CDC identifies any blood lead level of more than 10 micrograms

per

deciliter as a " level of concern. " But studies published in the New

England Journal of Medicine have found that children with even a

small

dose of lead in their system -- anything up to 10 micrograms -- can

lose

up to 7 or 8 IQ points.

Not everyone believes low-level lead exposure in children is a

growing

problem.

Dr. V. Hillman, founder of the Poison Control Center in Tampa,

believes it's unlikely doctors are missing it.

" It would take a lot of mouthing (of toys) over some period of time

to

ingest enough lead to cause a problem, " he said.

But both doctors agree detecting it is a challenge because a blood

test

will only reveal exposure in the last few months.

And removing lead is recommended only in children with extremely high

levels because it's difficult -- and traumatic.

Consider 5-year-old Noah Breakiron.

* * *

As a baby, Noah was fussy, chronically sick, constantly sporting a

runny

nose, always on antibiotics.

As time passed, he grew increasingly difficult. A trip to the grocery

store was only accomplished with both parents -- one to finish

shopping

while the other carried out a kicking and screaming Noah.

His parents stopped taking him out. " We became prisoners in our own

home, " said Rob Breakiron, 39.

They worried about Noah's development and communicating with him was

hard.

Finally, when Noah was 3, a doctor diagnosed him with autism. His

parents took him to Dr. Berger, a Tampa pediatrician who

specializes in autism.

But Berger suspected lead or some other heavy metal might be causing

Noah's health problems. Too much of a toxic metal can cause autism-

like

symptoms.

Berger ran Noah through a battery of tests, including for lead

exposure.

He tested positive for high quantities of lead.

" I'm thinking: lead! Where did he get lead from? " said Breakiron, a

pharmaceutical representative.

A lead investigator inspected the family's 5-year-old home -- and

found

nothing.

The Breakirons began to suspect some bath toys that he often put in

his

mouth. But most of Noah's baby toys were tossed so they will likely

never know the source of the lead.

A year ago, Berger put Noah on a chelation treatment -- alternating

treatments of intravenous drugs twice a week or suppositories three

times a week.

It pained Noah's parents to have to hold him down while a needle was

inserted in his arm or he received the suppository.

" He's been poked and prodded and had way too many doctor's

appointments

for a 4-year-old, " Breakiron said, " but at the end of the day, it

worked

beautifully for him. "

Today, with the lead mostly gone from his body, Noah is a

dramatically

different child. His verbal skills have exploded, he is more social

and

he's potty trained.

His behavior improved so much the family recently took their first

vacations to Busch Gardens and Disney World.

" It was a turning point in our lives, " said Breakiron. " I'm not sure

how

we got on this path or why this happened to us, but he's doing so

much

better. "

Noah now plays with plain brown blocks and a Playmobil airplane from

Germany. Toys made in China are no longer in the house.

Berger thinks pediatricians should return to screening all infants

for

lead. In the past year, he has begun to do so.

The CDC also believes that low-level lead exposure is a growing

concern.

But they say it is not necessary for all children to be tested

because

the dangerous treatment is not recommended at these low levels, said

Dr.

Brown, head of the CDC's lead poisoning prevention branch.

Ultimately, the only way to eliminate low-level lead exposure is to

remove the source of lead.

" This is an intervention that has to be done society-wide, " said Dr.

, " working with manufacturers' importers to make sure toys are

safe when they get here rather than making parents figure it out. "

* * *

Staley, 34, and Shayne Mills, 38, feel that they have no

choice

but to figure it out. They're trying to keep lead from reaching their

unborn child, a girl to be named Sierra.

It seems a daunting task.

" Now I'm thinking about all the gifts I got at the baby shower, " says

Stayley. " What toys are safe? What toys aren't safe? "

She and Mills found out their St. sburg rental home may contain

lead when they signed the lease in mid November.

They knew little about lead, but grew concerned. They learned of a

Pinellas County Health Department program: pay $75 to $125 and a lead

investigator would search their home for lead.

Joe Zwissler has been an environmental specialist with the Health

Department for 16 years. The X-ray analyzer he uses can detect lead

through layers of paint, plastic, wood, soil or other materials.

Zwissler has found lead in the oddest places. He traced a doctor's

lead

poisoning to the pewter place mat the man had eaten off for 20 years.

He

figured another woman's high lead levels might have been caused by

the

salsa bowl she replenished every day and stored in her fridge. The

salsa

ate away at the bowl's glaze allowing the lead to leach into the dip.

He

told a mother that her baby's lead poisoning was likely caused by

crystal rhinestones she was using to make handbags and belts on her

kitchen table -- where the family ate.

At Stayley and Mills' home, Zwissler finds lead on the doors, the

windows, the kitchen wall, some tiles in the bathroom.

The bedroom window in the baby's room is particularly high in lead.

He

uses a dust wipe to swipe a sample from the floor below the window

where

the baby may crawl. He'll test it later.

Zwissler then tests the couple's household items.

The baby spoons and the rattle? Negative.

The chess sets from Poland and Peru? A trace amount.

The serving bowl she uses for fruit? Too much for comfort.

The San Francisco music box the new mom had planned to put on the

baby's

dresser? Don't put it there.

Zwissler also finds a lot of lead in Mills' cream-colored University

of

Southern California fraternity beer mug.

" I drank a lot of beer out of that, I mean beer after beer, " Mills

says.

He originally thought his girlfriend was overreacting. Now the

father-to-be is worried.

A few days later, Zwissler calls back with the results of the dust in

the baby's room -- a high lead reading, too high for comfort.

The landlord tells Staley and Mills that she can't afford the tens of

thousands of dollars it will cost to remove the lead from the home.

She

would rather have them move out to be safe.

So with weeks to go before Sierra arrives, Staley and Mills begin

looking for another place.

" The idea of moving again, it's just the last thing I want, " Staley

said. " But when you're talking about the life of a child, you can't

afford to mess around. It doesn't matter if we have to move 10 times.

You do what's right for the child. "

/ Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report./

[Last modified January 13, 2008, 00:18:19]

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