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STUDY CITES HAZARDS Pa. Warns Smelt Shops FROM AIRBORNE LEAD MAR 221978 CouldBe Health Hazard Harrisburg -- (UP!) -- Health Sec retary Leonard Bachman has warned smelt workers and their families^of possible exposure tjlcad poisoning 1 cause of working contritions or'23 Pennsylvania factories, including five in the Philadelphia area. Bachman issued a "potential health hazard" for smelt workers at the Sit- kin Smelting and Refining Co. in Mail- land, Mifflin County. I Bachman said he tonic the action yesterday because the cumpany did not cooperate In providing employe health records to the Health Depart ment. Bachman also said there was a pos sibility of lead poisoning at other bat tery plants and kmelt shops in the state.. I The area plantfwere listed as ESB, Inc.; Richardnit CaphifS; Gould, Inc., and Anthracite Battery Manufac turing lnc,, all/of Philadelphia, and Eitra Corp., Cosshohocken. Bachman said the contamination may result by/exposure to lead dust, which fs oftim transferred to lead Workers' homes by clothing. Report Says Health Problems Are More Extensive and Complex Than Previously Believed niSSftaa * A national health organization and g leading public interest law firm have is sued a medical report that indicates that health problems associated with airborne lead are more widespread and complicated than has been generally believed. The report, issued last week by the American Lung Association and the Na-: tural Resources Defense Council, was! prepared in connection with (he Environ-1 mental Protection Agency's proposal to limit the amounts of ambient airborne 'lead to 13 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The E.P.A. standard, .the find to Emit amounts of airborne lead is to take /let^Poiscnjftg^' ^ Slate heoIlK officials ore testing patients al the Ncuropsychfotric Insti tute iif SWItitKin following Hie discovwy onfour case* of tead poisoning. High Ante of teod.wiere^lncomcd. ' *&mong\at Hie institute's training school for Hie retarded, which house* 415 residents. ,'traflj&wu. lead fumes generated ol indoor firing ranges by targel-iiiooling buffs end taw officers con be dangerous. The problem was studied by the Low En forcement Assistance Administration oiler a number of rangn inshuclors were hospitalized wjth lead poison ing. flic danger is shaifly-rwhltlRnr bullets with copper jackets are used. effect on June 14. The medical survey was prepared by Dr. Herbert Needleman of the Harvard tips fas "significantly high blood level" fafSifttlts' and even more dangerous for tiefnth.awnhothsoesereosfpiaradtuoltrsy. volumes are j- Medical School and Dr. Sergio PiomeUi: of the New York University Medical; Center, bothu-oKwhom are specialists in treatingftead-pdisone^ children and f Effects fa City Area* Jo conduction >!mU'Won the medical eliects of lead at low concentrations. ThtT study also found that airbomeIrad-mosl severely threatens inner-city j Reports of High Levels [ children living in tenements. In such; The study cited reports from many neighborhoods emissions from older cars areas of the country, either in inner-city Using leaded gasoline are trapped in the environments or situated close to some canyon-like streets, and traces also set tle to; the ground, reaching concentrationosn dust and dirt similar to the con* I types of industry, that had found thou sands of children and adults with high cefltfgtions in some leaded paint. lead levels in their Mood. '"David Schocnbrod of the Natural Re The Environmental Protection Agency sources Defense Council, whose court found an December (hat levels as low as action forced the E.P.A. to set the lead standard, said that the proposed limit o$ airborne lead was no guarantee that people would be protected from the ef from 10 to 40 micrograms of lead per 100 milliliters of blood caused unusual enzyme activity, cell malfunction and fects''of low-level exposure. malformation, subpar mental activity and He added that adverse physical ef anemia. Levels between 50 and 120 mi fects-had been observed and measured at .levels of lead in the blood at below IB micrograms--a typical level in areas remote from large concentrations of stationary or mobile sources of airborne lead.-."The E.P.A. goal," he said in an in crograms caused more severe mental deficiencies and brain damage. -Citing this study. Dr. Needlcman and fif. Pinmclli noted that people assimilate Intd from many sources--from the air, terview, "means Dial the average pers6p -would be at his blood lead level," .This would mean that about half of the population would hare lead concen trations in their bodies shove 15 micrograms per 100 milliliters, and that ap- 5taxlihatcly one million people wouill ave blood lead levels of more than 30 micrograms." water, dust, dirt, paint, improperly fired cdokwarc, plumbing and food. Most airboftid lead comes from automobiles that use-.leaded gasoline--about half those now in use. The remainder, about 10 percent.corocs from such sources as smelters and paint factories. A link-known aspect of the regulations Abrupt Rise After 1940 governing auto emissions, the report Until recently, relatively little had been known about the extent of airborne lead pollution, the report notes. Bui studies of glacial snows in Greenland have shown that a hundred-fold increase in lead contamination occurred abruptly altd- 1940. coinciding with a heavy in crease in the use of leaded gasoline. A fourfold and fivefold increase In lead was points out. is that as new emission-con trol devices aie developed that obviate the need for catalytic converters (which cannot use leaded gasoline), greater quantities of leaded gas will undoubtedly bk used. The rcilcial Government still intends to reduce the overall amount of load in gasoline by approximately 69 per- emtf^however. noted in tree rings that grew between 1963. and 1973, compared with rings that grew between 1910 and 1920. Dr, Needlcman and Dr. Piomclli cite such studies in their report as evidence that the transfer of lead from the earth's crust to the biosphere was man-made. Their report notes additional studies that estimate that the "natural" contribution of lead from the earth Into the air would yield levels of about .0005 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air. Today, urban air levels of lead are from 4,000 In 5.0911 times higher than this. The natural bodv lead burden of an adult has been estimated at around .25 micrograms of lead per 100 milliliters. InBev, the average urban adult's blood lead 'level ranges in the area of 75 to LOO times this estimate. i ' Increases Exponentially (The medical study also emphasizes that tlie amount of lead found in blood, com-; pared to the amount in the air, -s greater I by exponential amounts. The inhalation- Draft* containing minuscule amounts of legd for a period of time can result in transferring from two to 20 times those amounts into the blood stream. , VThe report cites n number of recent' ntpetimcntsl and epidemiological studies indicating that adults engaging >n only quiet activity respire about 20 cubic nvrters of air a day. If the air contained oeiy iwo micrograms of lead per cubic meter and only 40 percent of the metal was absorbed, the adult intake would be 16 micrograms of lead per 100 milliliters of blood. 'According to the authors of the study, N39149