Lead poisoning in Saint Louis.

AuthorBerg, Daniel
PositionBiodevastation 7

St. Louis is one of many US cities which have failed to effectively confront a major health danger. Thousands of children in St. Louis now suffer from lead poisoning, which is a totally preventable cause of brain damage. About 29% of African Americans and 16% of white children who are tested in the city have levels greater than ten micrograms per deciliter--the federal definition of "poisoned." Nationally, 2.2% of children suffer from lead poisoning. In some African American neighborhoods in north St. Louis, 55% of the children are poisoned! Lead poisoning leads to intellectual impairment in children including decreased intelligence and increased behavior disorders.

Furthermore, it is now known that children suffer intellectual impairment before technically being poisoned with 10 micrograms per deciliter of lead. The April 17, 2003, New England Journal of Medicine's lead research article documents a loss of over seven IQ points in children before they reach this threshold.

St. Louis has an ineffective, fragmented and poorly funded system for addressing this lead poisoning crisis. There is no primary prevention strategy to remediate homes before a child becomes poisoned. Instead, children are used as surrogate lead detectors. If a child has a level of greater than 12 micrograms per deciliter (above the federal cut-off and well above the safe limit), then the health department will send someone to the home to instruct the family in dust control, hand washing, and improved diet. These are all relatively ineffective interventions. They may also perform minor repair work on chipping or flaking paint. Some people also become eligible for lead remediation grants. Lead remediation involves removing leaded paint through window replacement or wet scraping and covering with a special thick paint. Programs now offered are through the Building Division ($900,000 per year available from a tax on building permits) and the Community Development Agency (a little under $1,000,000 per year available from HUD for general housing, some of which goes to lead remediation). Grace Hill Neighborhood Services also will receive a three-year, $15 million grant to address lead poisoning. The Urban League also receives money for lead remediation, although their program has been plagued with mismanagement. All of the agencies combined remediate approximately 130 homes per year. At this rate, St. Louis will not be lead-free until after the year 3000.

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