Community leaders have been taking steps to combat lead poisoning in the region, however, it’s not an easy fix.
“We know that Ohio has the third highest percentage of elevated blood levels in the country,” says Dr. Roopa Thakur, medical director for the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Lead-Free Ohio Program and medical director for Cleveland Clinic, Community Care Youth Strategies and Community Health and Partnerships. “We know that about 41 percent of those are children who live in Cuyahoga County, and that’s why there’s such a huge focus on lead poisoning in the past couple of years, because as that data came out, we were starting to realize just how many of our kids are affected.”
When the paint deteriorates, it can chip and peel, which can cause a danger of children accidentally ingesting it. Also, when families are renovating or remodeling, it can create an increase in lead dust.
“It is a silent problem, because when kids are acutely affected, or acutely poisoned, we are typically looking at the ages 1 to 2, because that’s when they are crawling around on the floor, getting their hands in all that dust that has lead contamination in it, putting their hands in their mouths, so they are actively ingesting all of that,” Thakur says.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, even small amounts of lead can cause learning and behavior problems in children. Lead affects many parts of the body, especially the nervous system. Lead is most harmful to children under the age 6 because a child’s growing body can absorb lead easily. Lead can also be dangerous to a baby during pregnancy. Problems related to lead poisoning can last the child’s entire life, even when kids are exposed to lower levels of lead.
Lead Paint in Local Homes
Lead exposure is a nationwide issue. Recent research conducted by Princeton University found that half of the U.S. population is exposed to adverse levels of lead early in childhood.
“Eighty percent of Ohio’s lead poisoning cases can be attributed to our housing stock, and that’s because over two-thirds of Ohio’s housing was built before 1978,” Thakur says. “If you look at Cleveland, specifically, 90 percent of Cleveland’s housing stock was built during the lead paint era. So, you can see that there’s a huge risk. But we know even outside of Cleveland, every single county in the state is affected, both with rural and urban housing, and a lot of this has to do with the lead paint that was used, and it’s starting to deteriorate now in a lot of these older homes.”
In July 2019, Cleveland City Council passed the Lead Safe Certification law to address childhood lead poisoning and Cleveland’s aging housing stock. The law requires that all residential rental units constructed before 1978 be proactively certified as lead safe by no later than March 1, 2023.
Also, the Cleveland Clinic has made a pledge to provide funding to The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition to help with the issue.
Screening and Testing for Lead Poisoning
“There is a difference between screening and testing,” Thakur explains. “We use the Ohio Department of Health’s screening questionnaire at every single well visit from ages 1-6.”
In lead screening, parents are asked questions to see if there are risk factors for lead exposure, and if anything comes back positive, doctors do a test to see the child’s blood level.
“If we do have a child that’s lead poisoned, long-term effects we might see are impaired academic performance, decreased IQ, or growth problems,” Thacker says. “We know that lead deposits into every single tissue in the body. There’s not one organ system that isn’t affected. So, we can see bone problems, or kidney problems.”
Physicians also see an increased risk of ADHD and other mental health disorders.
Raising Awareness
Better Health Partnership, a nonprofit, regional health collaborative, which is collecting data on lead testing and screening as well as other quality metrics from all of the healthcare systems in Northeast Ohio, identified that in the past year, in Cuyahoga County, at least 11,400 children required lead testing. About 33 percent of the children had lead testing done at ages 1 and 2.
There are multiple initiatives, locally and nationally to help reduce the risk factors and eliminate lead poisoning.
Robin Brown serves as the executive director of Concerned Citizens Organized Against Lead (CCOAL). Her daughter, Charmayne, was diagnosed with lead poisoning in 1999 at age 4. Brown started the organization so she could share her story and raise awareness about the dangers of lead poisoning.
“My daughter didn’t show any signs of lead poisoning,” she says. “One of the main concerns about lead is that the symptoms mimic other things.”
When they discovered her daughter’s lead poisoning it was in an “emergency state.”
Brown says, at the time, it was the first time she had heard of lead poisoning. Her experience prompted her to start CCOAL to educate and help other people.
“A lot of people feel like it’s not an issue for them,” Thakur says. “That it’s an urban problem, or that their home may have been built more recently, or that it’s already been renovated. So, a lot of people don’t recognize the dangers in their own homes. I think it’s important to realize, though, that the questions we ask are designed to capture all risks. One of the pitfalls we see, though, is that a child’s own home may be safe, but grandma’s home may be old, or the daycare may be old. So, there are potential risks in other environments in a child’s life that need to be accounted for.”
Keep the Lead Out
Dr. Thakur has a few things parents can keep in mind to avoid lead poisoning in and around the home:
1. Window sills and doors are at high risk because of the movement. We are opening and closing the doors and windows, and that can lead to more deterioration of the paint. It can cause more chipping, flaking and dust, which can lead to lead poisoning in children living in the home. So, parents should keep children away from those areas, letting children play in areas that are more in the center of the room.
2. It’s also important to clean frequently. So, parents should wet mop rather than sweep, or use a Hepa vacuum, which could be borrowed from most County Board of Health departments.
3. In the winter months, when kids are playing inside the home more, there might be a spike, because they are not playing outside like they normally would. So, they might have a slightly increased risk of exposures in the home during the winter.
4. For the summer months, there can be outside lead contaminations. So, if kids are playing in contaminated soil around the home, they are at an increased risk for lead exposure. Keeping grass or mulch spread over those areas can be helpful in reducing soil contamination.
5. Leaving your shoes at the door when you come into the house is helpful. That way, you’re not tracking lead-contaminated soil through your home.
6. Parents might have an occupational exposure, which means if they work at any occupation that involves lead handling. They could shower at work, if possible, before leaving and change their clothes. If they don’t have facilities at work, then they should come home, shower immediately, and wash their clothing separate from the rest of the family to prevent cross contamination. As best as they can, they should keep shoes and other items outside of the house or main traffic areas.
Phillip Bouton
Increases in blood lead levels in the warmer months are also caused by playing on the porch–many are painted with lead paint from floors, to railings and ceiling.
Luke Smith
It’s nice that you pointed out how lead is most harmful to children under the age of 6 because a child’s growing body could absorb lead easily. Our first child is about to be born and we want to make sure that he is going to be safe in our house. So for that, we should probably ask for lead inspection services now.