Monroe County School Boards Association



The Scourge of Lead Poisoning
Reprinted from the February-April 2003 issues of MCSBA's NewsScope
Lead poisoning a scourge that affects learning.
Lead poisoning is directly related to the failure of children to succeed. This relationship helps to explain achievement gaps, student discipline issues and drug abuse—and makes the slogan, “All Children Can Learn”, an unrealistic expectation for many. Most “ failing” schools are in low-income neighborhoods where housing is infected with the lead neurotoxin. This circumstance helps to explain why, if all low-income children were capable of learning, they haven’t been helped in significant numbers by the numerous endeavors of universities, foundations, government agencies, and school districts that have tried. Research confirms that if lead, instead of calcium, is incorporated into a child's rapidly developing brain during his first three years, those tissues are forever unable to function correctly. While treatment can reverse some damage, long-term exposure causes lifelong deficits. Lead is a potent neurotoxin prevalent in all older homes. A surprisingly small amount of lead can damage developing brains; a few sand-grain sized paint chips will do it. Once ingested, lead inhibits a child's ability to absorb iron, one of the basic building blocks of brains, nerves and bones. Lead also stunts a broad range of chemical transmitters that affect hearing, sight and causes such life-long problems as: * an inability to learn due to improperly formed neural connections, * attention deficit disorders because brain cells misfire and disrupt concentration, * violent behaviors due to a malformed prefrontal cortex (that should inhibit violence), and * drug abuse because illegal drugs relieve agitation caused by damaged brain cells.
Distribution of Elevated Blood Lead Levels Among Children in Rochester & Monroe County October 1, 1994 – September 31, 1995

	Elevated blood lead levels are considered to be equal to or greater than 10 micrograms per deciliter (µg≥/dL ) Maps taken from Lanphear BP, Byrd RS, Auinger P, Schaffer SJ. Community characteristics associated with elevated blood lead levels in children. Pediatrics. 101 (2):264-71, 1988 Feb. SOURCE: www.leadfreerochester.org.

Children with lead poisoning, do really suffer. They feel ill, they know they can’t think well, they are frustrated by their inability to learn, and they feel an agitation from the irritation caused by the lead in their brain tissues. Even tooth decay is caused by lead poisoning. A recent study by Mark E. Moss of the UR Medical Center found that, for children ages 5 to 17, an increased lead burden of 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood corresponds to an 80 % increase in cavities. Lead poisoning also leads to absenteeism and poor attendance leads to lower learning rates. Lead based paints were banned in most western countries before 1940, but not until 1978 in the United States. Large numbers of American homes built after World War II contain lead based paints. Whether or not the original lead paint has been painted over, lead can escape as dust and paint chips where children can ingest them. Young families move into low-cost houses until they can move into better housing, but meanwhile their youngsters are permanently poisoned by lead dust. When they move out another family moves in and more children are poisoned. And after they leave, many of these children go to good schools but cannot learn. When comparing performance of American students with those of other countries, researchers note that most other developed nations have anti-poverty programs for children that don’t exist in America, that affluent American schools outperformed most international schools on tests of math and science, that low-income schools in the US do not, and that if comparing European students with American students of similar poverty European students are not exposed to lead as pervasively as are US students.
Research
Medical research indicates that blood lead levels of 10 micrograms/dL are high enough to cause a reduction in physical stature and an 11.1 point reduction in IQ, with any exposure to lead by a child in his/her first three years causing brain damage of some degree since 90% of brain development occurs in that time frame. Dr. Bruce Lanphear, M.D., M.P.H., of Cincinnati Children's division of General and Community Pediatrics, in a paper read at the April, 2001 Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting, noted the effects of lead levels in the blood on the IQs of 276 children born in five Rochester, NY hospitals. He found an average 5.5 point reduction in IQ for every 10 micrograms per deciliter increase in blood lead. But for children who had blood lead less than 10 micrograms per deciliter, there was an 11.1 point reduction in IQ for the initial 10 microgram per deciliter increase in blood lead. Since a normal IQ equals 100 points, a 10 % loss is a 10 point loss in IQ. A 10 point loss in IQ represents a substantial change in intelligence, equivalent to losing over one-fifth of the entire normal intelligence of a human being. It means many children born with normal intelligence become mildly retarded due to lead poisoning, and the mildly retarded become severely retarded.

Political Reaction
To date, political leaders have chosen to react to poor student performance by holding school districts accountable even though sufficient data exist to indicate a medical root cause. Some legislatures have enacted laws that allow, or require, the states to take over failing schools from local districts. According to William Raspberry, a nationally syndicated Washington Post columnist, writing on February 5, 2001: "Much of President Bush's approach to education reform is based… on a persistent myth: That the people who staff our low-performing public schools could do a much better job if they wanted to...One of the consistent arguments for vouchers...is not that a few, self-select4ed youngsters would get a better education, but that failing public schools--spurred by the threat of losing enrollment and money--would crack down and do what they (presumably) already know how to do."
What's Being Done
Federal investigators say most states are flouting a 1989 federal law requiring that young children on Medicaid be tested for lead poisoning. … The General Accounting Office found that 'few Medicaid children are screened for blood-lead levels. Despite federal policies, most children in federal health care programs have not been screened. One reason given for low screening rates is the widespread belief that lead exposure is no longer a problem. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on October 24, 2001 announced $67 million in grants to remove lead hazards from 7,000 homes in 16 states, to fund local blood testing for children living in low-income housing, to remove lead-based paint hazards from privately owned low-income homes, to inspect low-income housing for the presence of lead hazards, to temporarily relocated families during lead control work, to initiate outreach programs, to train lead hazard control workers, and to identify housing with lead hazards. Monroe County’s efforts to control dangers related to lead-based paint will get a big boost with a $2 million federal grant to help diminish the danger of lead paint poisoning in 420 houses and apartments in the city. Previously, the county received a federal grant of $1.7 million that resulted in lead paint remediation for 72 housing units. The $2 million will be on top of the $660,000 in the 2003 county budget for lead paint control. Funds from the grant will also be used to train landlords, house painters and remodelers in lead-safe work practices. And the grant will make 325 cleaning kits available to the public along with 35 special vacuum cleaners for property owners to borrow for lead-safe dust control. The county will spend $60,548 to publicize the dangers of lead poisoning. A Center for Governmental Research study done for the county last year found that 1,319 of the 14,819 children younger than 6 screened in 2000 had blood levels at or above 10 micrograms per deciliter -- the level considered dangerous. The number of children who tested at dangerous levels in 2001 was 1,034, according to Monroe County Health Director Andrew Doniger. The body excretes very little lead once it is incorporated into body tissues. Chelation therapy can remove lead still in the blood, but not lead already incorporated into body tissues. There is nothing that can be done once the brain damage occurs.
What's Left To Do
Whenever a “failing” school is identified, its district should insist that all students be tested for lead poisoning. Students with lead poisoning should receive a three-pronged intervention effort. First, the source of the lead should be determined and abated. If housing is implicated the landlords should be sued by the district for school intervention costs. Second, a school intervention program should ensure that those children with elevated lead levels be evaluated for learning and behavioral problems and proper medical intervention strategies implemented. Third, the district should insist that all housing within the school’s attendance area be tested for the presence of lead, and community organizations should ensure that children do not occupy those homes. State statutes should make it a felony to knowingly rent or sell housing containing lead-based paint for children under three years old, and a misdemeanor for children over that age. Contractors involved in housing renovation should be required to pass lead awareness training for licensing. Real Estate agents should be required to disclose the presence of lead-based paint in all housing transactions. Districts in conjunction with the overall community around “failing” schools should demand that all children under three years be screened for lead exposure on a regular basis either through private or public health agencies. Lead exposure screening should be mandated before children can be enrolled in daycare or public school programs. Educators and parents should form community alliances with social service, public health, and public interest groups to ensure that lead poisoning of all children within their school boundaries becomes financially impossible. Districts should work with other groups to educate the general public about the dangers of low-level lead contamination. Hardware store employees should be educated to warn those who purchase sand paper that sanding lead-based paint is dangerous and that all painted surfaces should be tested for lead before sanding. If political forces make schools accountable for not teaching children who have been poisoned, schools must take action against the poisoning. Education reform, student counseling, and discipline codes cannot mend poisoned brain cells. Only actions that prevent children from being poisoned in their first three years of life will prevent schools in low-income neighborhoods from failing.

SOURCES: Strange Ignorance: *The Role of Lead Poisoning in “Failing Schools”* by Michael T. Martin, Research Analyst, Arizona School Boards Association, October 31, 2002 (www.azsba.org). James Goodman. “$2 million to fight lead paint in county”. Democrat and Chronicle. January 14, 2003. www.leadfreerochester.org Ralph Spezio, at rspezio@yahoo.com