Document Lg85N5NMXNKRQa5owb5YrnZ4z

t&eJfefcrJ!ork&mti j C^Pfoject^EkSeek-Way-to ,SotidajrrMtreh2 1969; I Continued From Page One Paint-Poison Danger -by tha sdehtm** *wop, whfchbu been striv ing .to call the laad-poiaoning situation to public attention. Dr. Joseph A. Chaino, med- To Children Fought jfcai director of the Health {Department's poison control outer, estimated that there{wen 20,000 young children By JOSEPH P. FRIED Smah children who live -m slum buildings and the land lord* who own the property hive a stake ir. a test project soon to be undertaken by the city in cooperation with a paint-industry trade associa tion. The test will be to deter mine the effectiveness and economic feasibility of using a r.ontoxic solvent to remove 'avers of old paint from the wills of deteriorating apart ments. Plans for the test were dec-ibed las! week by a city hej '.h cr':.as he dis cussed a continuing contro versy o'.?- whether the I ind*?; Ac.nir.istratiVn was moving with sufficient speed to met: the problem of lead poisoning :n small children caused by paint and plaster bits that pc-o! and flake from walls and ceilings in blighted apartment:. Health officials acknowledge a danger be cause the paint and plaster is often eaten by youngsters. The ccir.nvmity groups charge that the city is not moving fast enough to de velop a program to deal with the problem. Such a program, they hold, should include not' only more thorough and systematic procedures for de tecting lead poisoning in slum children, but also the removal of old -coats of poisonous paint from apartments in biigbted areas. .Ibis kind of action would be expensive for landlords and would re quire city aid, leaders of the community group* acknowl edge. City officials contend that over-all they are moving as quickly as they can in the situation and that, in the matter of removing the old paint, economically practical procedures an still being in vestigated. . Although the cause of the peril--lead-based apartment paint--was outlawed here' a decade ago, and the most re cent coats of paint in deteri orating apartments do .not contain dangerous levels of lead, falling paint and plaster chips' in such apartments are still poisonous because the lead content from coats of older paint usually form V sizable part of such chips. 'e When small children eat the flaking pieces-** many ypungsters between the* ages of 1 to. 5 doi-tbey open themselves to a disease that can damage the kidneys and the blood and nervous sys tem. in its adsanoed wages, lead poisoning can cause death or permanent mental retardation, cerebral palsy and epilepsy. In fact, a top dty health official has estimated that the extent of the situation hare -to even pastor than Continued or-Fqge J;-Git B with undetected lead in their systems at a potentially dan gerous level and 0,000 others with undetected lead at as already dangerous level" : The dentists' group, the Hew York Scientists' Com- Bittee for Public Information, gives a more coneervatiye utimste of 0.000 to JS.OOQ ; inch youngsters with lean f . poisoning here.. f The committee, formed a I decade ago, disseminates ' scientific Information needed ` to determine public policy. Its board of advisers includes well-known doctors and ad- . entists such as Dr. Alan Gutt- maefaer, the gynecologist who Is president of Planned Par enthood > World Population. In any case, all the parties in the controversy agree that the few hundred cases of lead-poisoned children that come to the Health Depart ment's attention each year - are only a small -portion of the existing cases--a situa tion not limited to New York tit*:*...... . To deal with the problem^ i tiw Health Department faiihtd **-tatoreal task forc~fcst :'**"* * eoo* g*P : nas alio been formed ^feat' { Indudea representatives . of j that department and of'the ' Buildings Departmenl the Department' of Rant -and | Housing Maintenance 4nd i Mayor Lindsay's office... . Also' formed last August was a Citizens' Committee to NL ^ 002303 , End Lead Poisoning, repre senting about 20 shmMrea ' organizations. It contends that the dty teak forces have been moving too slowly on the problem. Frederick S. Kent, assist,. Health Department com-' miesloncr for environmental louses health cervices, responded. - "Within the resources we : hate available, we're mov' tog as fast as we can." Although die Health IX; pertinent hes the legal power ' to order tlie removal of eld coate of heavily leaded paint if they are a health hazard, . soch 'an order "without a ! practical suggestion for ex ecuting it is worthless," Mr. Kent said. As part--of an attempt to ' find a practical suggestion. he said, the test with the ; nontoxic solvent wiil be ear, ried out in an old bu-'dirg in about two weeks, in coo(>era tion with the New Vcrk Paint, Varnish and Lacquer - Association. Costs and results of the method will be compared with those of other snggestsd ways of retrevins the danger of the old paint--by cover! lag walls with plaste'-boa-d ; or wallboard or by burning l or sanding the pair*, cff. - The lar.c* two methods ere considered unfeasible by some because one Is a fire hazard and the ot'r-r would cause lead dost df.igerot-' to workmen and tenants, Whatev- method is found least costly should h" rompulsory in slum buildings, with the owners rcce-ving tax abatement cr other fi nancial aid to help finance ' the paint removal and resur facing, Paul Du Brel, a' Spokesman for the citizens' committee, said. landlords oi slum , build-lags can be expected te argue that the demanded paint re moval can be carried out i only with full city aid. These owners contend that con trolled rents in such build. tags have prevented them froip fighting decay and have - led to owner abandonments * As * practical matter, in - apartments where a child has 1 been found suffering from . lead poisoning, . the Health Department has ordered Iqose paint scraped away and a. new coat applied, officials . say. But they admit that this ! is only a-temporary solution , because cracking and crumj bling walls will soon drop the i- tod . pamt with^a child's ff reach again N 3852 THE EVENING NEWS * 23 Newark, N.J., Tuesday, May 27,1969 1 Dies? 7 Felled By Lead Poisoning sequently went into convulsions. A J$$*year-old girt has died She died May 14. Dr. Theodore of lead pofajonmg md seven FCushmk, associate professor of others, including three of the pediatrics at the New Jersey gbi's mitted tally, bare to liartland been ad Hospital College of Medicine and Den with poitartnig in the last three tistry, ordered the other Wilson weeks, a hospital official said. children brought to the hospital Dawn Wilson, daughter of for examination, and discovered to 1 l Mrs. Lilly Wilson of US Renner Ave. has died. Her two broth ers, Gary Wilson, 8, and Barry, 8, and a Water, Dionne, 5, have been treated for lead potaioning and released. The other children are from four different families, in var ious locations. They were not identified. la Semi-Coma Dawn was brought into Man- (hey too were suffering from lead poistaing. All the families involved live in old houses in various parts of (he city. Dr. Kushnik said chil dren absorb the lead by eating saint and plaster off the walls. Prior to 1M0, bouse paint con tained a high amount of lead and therefore lead poisoning is a greater danger in old bouses, be explained. land in a aamicoma, and sub H the illness is caught in time it can be fought with new medi cation, he added, but neverthe less, some children are left with brain damage, and the lead can not be gotten out f the bones. Symptoms of lead poiaoning are km of appetite, pallor, ab- , (nvopnii, in* lability, vomiting and change of personality. Dr. Ktahnlb urged who me (heir children .tat or plaster to bring immediately to thc heri tor tests. NOT WINED ON NL I 002304 N 3852.01 i / 30 East 68tb Street, New York, New York 10021 NEW YORK Scientists' Committee for Public Information, Inc. Telephone: AG 9-2886 LEAD POISONING 1B SLUK CHlLDMSf Lead poisoning in children is caused by the eating of peel ing lead-containing paint and plaster in run-down housing* If Infections are excluded* it is the most common childhood disease in the City of New York* Its causes ahd results are known) it can be treated and prevented* Yet* because of a lack of public awareness and action, a "silent epidemic" exists, and each year thousands of children are needlessly exposed to severe illness. In Chicago, Cleveland and Baltimore, from 5-10# of children aged one to six living in poor housing have lead poisoning. New York City has 800,000 run-down housing units) using population figures, we get the conservative estimate that 9*000-18,000 children in Nex* York presently have lead poisoning. (Health Department offi cials have estimated 25,000-35*000.) Yet only 600 cases are reported each year. The reason is that theearly signs are like the flu or other minor diseases* loss of appetite, stomach pain, constipation and crankiness. If the child is not given the correct lab test early by the doctor, or if the parents don't ask for a lab test when they see their child eating paint chips, the child may become sicker, vomit and develope convulsions. Then he may go into a coma. Somechildren with coma die. Very often they have serious brain damage which will last the rest of their lives. The main cause of lead poisoning is old layers of paint.falling from walls and ceilings, hany doctors say that 90-95# of cases in children can be traced to eating lead-containing paint or plaster. Until 20 years ago most paint contained lead. Therefore any old building very likely has lead in the bottom paint layers, Irany young children pick up non-food particles and eat them. In newer housing, plaster is kept in good repair and there is almost no lead poisoning. But in poor housing about one young child in thirteen will become poisoned* with the chance of permanent brain damage, or death. Prepared by Glenn L. Paulson and Joel Buxbaum, 14 February 1969* For further information, call or write the SCPI office. G023O5 NL I Board of Adoiton Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ph.D. Rene Dubos, Ph-D. L C Dunn, ScX>. Also Garanecher, M.D. John Laughlin, Ph.D. Gertrd Pie! Edward Tana, Ph.D. Warren Weaver, PhD. N 3852.02 Board of Diroeton _______________ Stanley Dentsch, PhD. Gerson Lesser, M.D. Jacques Lipctz. Ph.D. Evelyn Mans*,PhD. Glenn Paulson,B.A. Edmund Rothschild,M.D. Philip Siekcvitz, PhD. Max Snoddcrly, M.S. Sidney Socolar, PhD. Tom Stonier, PhD. Leonard Zablow, MS.