Document XzRe193Jdb3YBDO0K18BQ17MG

LIA-76186 4 By MARTY WOLFAND Dr. Steven Lamm of the Bronx Municipal Concentrations of lead in the dust on Hospital. Dr. Lamm has found that vir New York City streets have reached a tually all brands of evaporated milk, critical level, according to a study which is widely used in infant formulas, prepared by the Public Interest Cam contain lead levels which could be toxic to paign, a Washington-based consumer young children. group. The study reports that a child in Dr. Lamm's research determined that New York City, in his normal routine, can one source of lead in canned milk is the ingest enough lead (as little as one solder and flux used in sealing the seams twenty-fourth of a teaspoon a day over a in canning. Can companies are already period of six months) to cause damage to reported to be taking steps to devise a. his central nervous system. safer process for sealing seams. The U.S. Public Health Service esti The U.S. Food and Drug mates that in 1973 400,000American child Administration (FDA) has recently an ren will have high concentrations of lead nounced that, effective January 1, 1973, in their blood. About 16,000 of these lead content in evaporated milk can be no children will require treatment: another greater than 0.5 parts per million (ppm). 200 children will die from lead poisoning. - The FDA standard has already come 800 children will be so severely injured as under attack by Dr. Lamm and also by to require permanent care, while 3,200 New York City's Assistant Health- children will suffer moderate to severe Commissioner, Dr. Vincent Guinee. Both brain damage and will require years of doctors maintain that the FDA should cut special treatment. the lead ceiling by at least one-half. They Lead poisoning in children frequently argue that lead in milk most affects low- results from eating chips of leaded paints income families who use canned milk used in older housing. Recent evidence extensively for infant formulas because it points increasingly to airborne lead or is e.eonomical and slow to spoil. Children of lead in dust or dirt as an important source low-income families are also more often of lead, particularly in urban areas. Lead exposed to lead in paint and airborne lead in gasoline contributes about 90-98 from heavy aute traffic exhaust. percent of all lead in the air. This airborne Therefore, they conclude, stricter lead also settles, contaminating dirt and regulations for lead in milk must be dust. .... . (Continued on page 5) According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report released last September, "Combined ingesting of lead based paint and lead in dirt and dust is thus probably responsible for the large . numbers of urban children found to have ahnormally elevated blood levels (of lead)." - Milk: A New Source Another previously unsuspected source of lead was discovered by a New Yorker, - !. f.vr (Continued front page l) established to protect such children fror this new source of lead. Lead Levels Disputed EPA is also aware of the danger of leat in the environment In a recent report EPA stresses that because of the hig1 concentrations of lead found in the bloo* of adults, as well as in children and th newborn, "air lead levels should prudent! be reduced to the fullest extent possible. EPA first considered that a safe cor centration of lead'in air should be no mor than two micrograms of lead per cub: meter of air, which was to be attained b reducing the amount of lead in gasoline b 60-65 percent. According to an EPA report date April 11, 1972, .. lead levels exceedin two micrograms per cubic meter.at associated with a sufficient risk of advers physiological effect to constitute ei dangerment of public health." A later unpublished preliminary repor dated September 22, 1972, recommende that "EPA's previous lead in gasolir regulation calling for a 60-65 percent lea reduction to achieve two (microgram) a lead goal must be considered inadequai to protect the public. This decision based largely upon a thorough r evaluation of all available date, includir recently completed studies." The Final Decision The final lead standards decision w rest with William Ruckelshau Administrator of EPA. The forthcomir decision is already in dispute. One industrial consultant, Dr. Leonai Goldwater of Duke University, said in ; article written for Industrial Medicin "An ambient air standard for lead of fo' micrograms per cubic meter of air higher would have fewer scientific o jeetions than a standard of ts micrograms per cubic meter." At the same time, a spokesman for tl Natural Resources Defense Council. ; environmental law firm, said that as so< as the new standards are published, t Council will decide whether or not to ta legal action. Tentatively, EPA proposes th beginning January 1, 1974 the le content of all grades of gasoline gradually reduced so that by January 1977 G0-G5 percent of the present le content would be eliminated. I'urth< after July I, 1974, retailers would have offer for sale gasoline rated at 91 octa that would he virtually lead-free. LIA-76187 N 862.01 Our Daily Planet, February 1973 Lead In Milk: A New Danger Called an "eye-opener" by the man who initiated it, a recentlycompleted study has called public attention to a new en vironmental hazard: high levels of lead in milk. . In October 1971. the Conneticut State Health Department received a complaint from a consumer who had opened a can of evaporated milk which seemed to have spoiled on the shelf. When the Health Department analyzed the mlk for con centrations of bacteria, black chips were found floating in the liquid. The analysis deter minated that the milk con tained a high concentration of lead. Dr. Steven Lamm was assigned to investigate the matter further. The resulting study found disturbing concentrations of lead in milk, ranging from 0.06 parts of lead per million parts of milk (ppm) to 2.3 ppm before dilution. Dr. Lamm found that of all types of milk evaporated skim milk consistently has the highest lead levels. Because of low cost and slow rate of spoilage, evaporated skim milk is widely used for infant feeding. An infant who consumes an average 25-35 ounces of evaporated milk each day will ingest more than 300 micrograms (mg) of lead daily. . Three hundred mg of lead is now generally considered the maximum daily permissible intake for children over two years old. Dr. Lamm theorizes that infant exposure to lead may increase the danger to health at a later time. "The body may (Continued on page 7) flfew Yorfc Study Concludes Lesdl lira Rao ul s A Dsangj?'. (Continued from page 3) have storage places for the lead which accumulates there and which cannot be excreted," Dr. Lamm said. "When an infant takes in a large amount of lead through milk, these storage places may get filled up early in life by the lead the infant cannot excrete, so that later in life, when challenged with more lead, these children may be unable to prevent more lead and smaller doses of lead (from paint chips, street dust, etc.) from being toxic to them." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently published standards for lead levels in milk. The regulations require that levels not exceed 0.05 ppm. These findings affect the urban poor the most. This segment of the population, according to Dr. Lamm, is "most likely to be feeding infants on canned milks which contain high lead levels. Likewise, it is these same children who live in areas such that later they are at highest risk of getting lead poisoning from leaded paint chips." Other portions of the public which use non-fat dry tpilk, whole milk, or human breast milk for feedings, are relatively safe. These kinds of milk, according to Dr. Lamm's study, contain only nominal levels of lead. The study cites four possible sources for lead contamination in .evaporated milks: Vented cans are filled through a hole in the bottom, which is later capped with a soldered plug that is 80 percent lead. Venting is u: extensively as an inexpens way to can milk. Seams on some cans . crimped; on others they soldered. The solder and f used on seams has a high 1< content. Non-fat dry milk, which also used frequently in inf formula, is dried by air. If the is not filtered, airborne lead n sift into the milk. Piping may also be a sou of lead. Some pipes throi which the-milk travels to cann stations are in part made of le which may contaminate the n as it passes. Milk manufacturers h: announced steps to correct 1 contamination from the sol and flux used in making seams. Dr. Lamm's finding w delivered to the American Pu Health Association in a paj "Lead Content of Milks Fed Infants" at Atlantic C November 13 of last year. Dr. Lamm and Dr. John Ro are presently pursuing furt studies on this subject Montefiore Hospital in Bronx. Lift-76168 N 862.02