Document a1OwEV4OZpKqNQa9OEvO22OzB

Lead Poisoning) IsLinKcdlo-- LEAD STUDY HINTS RACE DIFFERENCE Auto .Exhaust, t-.* A* * * IlH* |wrntf hi Thr fnqmYrr* Says Blacks May Bs More Ah J Wntbinfilrm f-nsr - WASHINGTON. - A bioche. misl for (he Notional Institutes of Mental ffcaitii has suggested that lead front auto exhaust-- instead of that from lead-based paint -- may be the major source of lead poisoning among -ituVtt-'tfhiga,-inuOT-eijv children:v. ... Dr. Daniel B. Fisher said in a willcn report, **ihat one-third or more of the lead in (the systems of} city-thveJIing Americans conies from inhal ation of airboms lead from automobiles." ! He said (he conclusions In his report indicate that It "would be genocide to build another foot of freeways" in Washington. pupils Aid Fight on Leacl, Poisoning Pupils in Knthy Peters* filth year class at Giitph School,. Upper Merlon, liave contribut ed $2<Uo the accident contra! sertioi of the Philadelphia De- partmi nt of Health for the figiuf Wfnjt ftrad poisoni >|*. * The children collected the money by attributing allow* nnee monw, doing without ice errant? and turning in small cl/angc earned for Devised Here JUt 2 3-1972 Nm By JOHN SIBLEY ' Two years of laboratory work by the chief chemist at Ford- ham Hospital has resuited hi the perfection of a new method ' for measuring iead poisoning in children, a major liealm hazard in shims. The method, developed by Martin Marcus, so impressed of ficials of the Health and Hospitals Corporation thatthe proced ure is being Instituted through out the municipal hospital sys, tern. They said yesterday It would be a major faejor in a massive dtywide screening pro gram, contributing simplicity, safety and speed. / The method is alr^idy in use at Fordham and Lkicoln Hos pitals -in the Bronx and at Queens General Hospital. As soon as the necessary equip ment is acquired, A will become standard procedure in ail but' three oi the J8 public hospitals here. The third not involved specialize in gefattic and long term care. Standard ledd-testing proce dure up to now has required a blood sample of five cubic centi meters--abouff a third of a cubic inch--which presents no terlinica! problems in adults, but is sotnet/mes difficult and painful to Obtain from small children. WASHINGTON, Jons ll (UPI)--A 27-city survey Indi cated today that black youngstej* fnteht bemora susceptible ip lead! pobonlnpfrom paint In otd Slums'UiWwhite children. A United States Health Serv ice study said that among black children tested fqf levels of lead In their blood, 3f per cent had amounts considered excessive by the Surgeon fceneral of the United States, Avhile only 11 pcr.cent of the white youngsters tested'did. / "Cultural on genetic factors snay play an important role in the black children/* the health service, study! concluded, "We can't nay it Bs because black kids live in worse bousing, be cause we found a three-to-one difference When the housing was equally pad.*" Lead polfonlng can cause mental retardation and death. The Surgeoi General has esti mated that 403,000 children have dangerously high levels of lead in theit blood from eating chipped ami peeling paint off! stum walls. | Prior to the nineteen-fifties/ lead-based paint was widely; used. Since then St has beenl replaced with other bases as? the danger of lead became] known. ; .| In another development, the Senate approved today by an- 82-to-O vote a bill authorizing $JO0-mi1ikm annually for ai . stepped-up program to combat lead-poisoning among slum chil dren. ciiores. I The new method requires The class has received a let ter of commendation from Ed ward Weiner, assistant chief of the accident control section of the Philadelphia Depart ment of Health. He also sent the class a sup ply ol pamphlets on lend poisoning. SchweiUer Asks Drive On Pninl Poisoning Wsdtniginn -- UHMi -- Sen. pichard S. Srhweifcer (R l*a) 1rfay ttrgf'd intensified gnverorirni efforts to combat leadbased pmoit ioispntoft of chit* prn -- a r*hfcm he said is twarty epidemic in inoer-riiy Irnt'dalion that vmilrt enrmaik * Sin niilltnti yrariy (nr re. iscmrh. prevention and treatl^nt programs--nearly seven tifn-s wbnl is being spout "HOW. Si hwHckm said In a stale jn-nj prepared far hearings on I |*r* legislation before a Sen{iir Health sulnnmmtHee, " IVir is mm'l) more that mtrc( hr door. nod 'C O'oet ctiasbcally ftcpnptnu ettnrl*. only a drop of blood, obtained from a finger-tip pin prick. Fur- thcr, the testing itself--called atomic absorption spcctropho- , tiemiSt , J r L6QU r UeVeiOpS n lOlSOtXltlS Dr. Norma Goodwin, the rita hospital system's vice rcsidrtr for ambulatory care ami com munitv health. Dr. Goodwjn in Continuedo b Page 29, Column 5 quired how the experiment was Mr. Marcus worked ratory that he and in a labo his staff progressing, got an encourage jng rcplv from Mr. Marcus, nmf Ihrn mike( whether he would tomctry--is simpler and spee virtually built with their own he willing to participate in a dier than the old method. hands in the basement of the 'double blind" study. Mr. Marcus had undertaken the project in April, 1970, at nurses' residence at Fordham Mr. Marcus, now confident Hospital. And they worked with of his method, agreed. From the little encouragement from the Health Department laboratory. (he urging of Dr. Melvin Hol cUy'sHcalth Department,whos Dr. Bernard Pavidmv sent Mr. lander and Dr. Robert E. Lucas sophisticated laboratory across Marcus 225 blood specimens of Fordham Hospital's depart from Bellevue Hospital had been that had already been tested ment of pediatrics. Lead poisoning is most prev trying for years to develop such by the standard method. a test, which scientists refer Mr. Marcus, not knowing the to as a micro-testing method. Health Department's results, alent among slum children under 5 years of age, who swallow chips of lead-based Hie Health Department chem ists had virtually abandoned hope of developing the spectro was to test the specimens with his own method and compare results. paint that fall from the walls photometry method and were and ceilings of their tenements. urging two unrelated procedur Results Compared These youngsters develop pica, as research projects. The first At this ritical inneturr, Mr. an unnatural craving for non involved a way of measuring Marcus's fab technician re food substances. porphyrin, whose level is ele signed and Mr. Marcus replace rps. Depending on Its severity, vated when lead is present. The ment. nine lead poisoning can cause ane second protect centered on In one dav, he taught the iciy Bur mia. cramps, kidney troubles, convulsions, severe brain dam age and death. anodic stripping, a procedure in which lead is measured by the electrical voltage it gener test procedure to Miss Janet Clarke, a City College chemistry student who had been in his dies The new testing method, Mr. ates in solution. laboratory observing clinical "is Marcus readily acknowledged, But in May of this year* procedures. got they rrve they Isn't had been a theoretical possi bility fang before he became In volved. Ills own grounding on the subject, he said in an inter view, came from the published work of a British scientist, K. T. word reached the Health and Hospitals Corporation that the Fordham experiments were pro ducing encouraging results. "I could see I was just a hair away," Mr. Marcus recalled With the results compiled, Mr, Marcus went to the Health Department laboratory to compare results with Dr. Davidmv. "The correlation was just perfect--frighteningly close." Delves, a chemical pathologist yesterday. "1 knew it was Mr. Marcus said. "Inside I had at the Hospital for Sick Chil just around the corner." this singing feeling. It was an dren in London, Then came a phone call from exhilarating moment" to combat this trntic disea?e"