Document bBDMp341rLryxeqpMyxO2x84D

^federal Aid mJArea ; /: k by Lead Poisoning . ' 'Hi v 'ghborhood of Asarco iPIaat Has 5, .l^ead-Sick' -CWIdrenj disaster Designation Urged .-.Special to Tss Wax <l St r e e t ^o u r k a-l . "|r SJL P.ASQ - This city's "Smeltertown," an pinea of some 120 families in the shadow of .American Smelting | Refining Co- facility, Iteay become one of the nation's first "lead poi son disaster areas." Hthat's tile federal-aid label Mayor Bert Wil liams is seeking as 35 children are: being for lead poisoning apprehension that the dimensions of the problem fahay be much larger.. | . .The big question in the episode--"Where did 'the lead come trom?"--is the main issue of a ^pollution suit being heard in' an El Paso district Texas and El Paso brought suit against charging it with failure to comply with ordinances. They are asking for com- and payment by Asarco of punitive estimated at about $1 million. Testi- in the fourth week of the trial continues *. focus on whether local lead poisoning sages, aee the result of inhalation of lead particlte fa The company refuses to discuss the -case, Its attorneys have pounded away in the ,iffurtroom with the argument that the children 4ould have been poisoned by eating paint chips ftjj( sod containing lead. . .| f While Mayor Williams is in Washington jjirg- federal aid for his Jittery, city, develcp- tt$ back home are multiplying. The city-county health unit here is propos ing blood sampling of as many as 50,000 cttil- 'dren under six years old to determ'ne lead cgn- `entraticeis. The mayor erf Ciudad Juarez, Max- "}co, which is contiguous with El Paso's souih- ' em city limit, advised El Paso officials 'M plans for a similar blood-sampling project >Jn >is city. In addition New Mexico, which i^r- aers El Paso in the vicinity of the smelter, rlans to send a public health team to El Paso r ext week to determine if atmospheric lead 'sneentrations are affecting the New Mexico \>wer Rio Grande Valley. And the U.S. Public -iealfh Service announced it intends to send a viam to El Paso next week to begin sampling - j^fead in SI Paso's atmosphere. Evidence of lead poisoning among children ~Mng in the area near the smelter came to ght Peb. 19, just before the opening of the tel involving Asarco. It was disclosed that * 1 samples of 125 children and adults had . -temed up five cases of lead poisoning. Subse- , attorneys for the city and state have on the smelter's release of 285 ferns of particles emitted each year from its smoke stacks. Some testimony has also sup ported the contention that local lead poisoning ses have been produced by inhalation of ad... * ., , ... " . - ^ Whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, odds ire that -Smeltertown, -currently the source of iea/ted litigatimi and emotional strife, will soon , >s a ghost. .Relocation housing has been pro- ; teed for three .of fee families,involved m the'] -Ulii^ .cMIdrenlwoii^.^aye to .return to pofcen-1 2&c N13802 0000-NU-000020699