Document rpk78xoe05NGRK4g99rJZgy80

'WALL STREET JOURNAL FRIDAY AUGUST 27, 1982 Lead Balloon . In the world of environmental poli tics, there is a natural law: If you're losing, create a scare. A classic ex ample of that tactic has just been ap plied to force the administration to back off on Its plan to ease gasoline lead regulations. Perhaps the Reaganites should have known better than to fool around with an environmental issue that was so well booby-trapped. On the other hand, when Vice President Bush's de regulation task force looked at gaso line lead last year it seemed like a place where substantial economic gains could be had with no untoward health effects. Indeed. President Car ter had eased up once during the gaso line snafus without even getting a rise out of the environmentalists. The argument for letting refiners pul a bit more lead in regular gasoline is twofold: By raising octane artifi cially it increases the gasoline yield of a barrel of crude oil and hence could save a lot of crude oil, and dollars, over time: since cars that use leaded gasoline are disappearing from the highways, it wouldn't raise total lead emissions. . But there is an emotional issue in volving lead-and the environmental ists, looking for ways to derail Rea- ganite deregulatory efforts, used it with a vengeance. It seems that vari ous research studies have discovered high levels of lead in the bloodstream u among certain children, particularly I children already disadvantaged by life in urban ghettos. These reports were held to show that at the very least several hundred thousand young sters were having their minds dulled by lead Ingestion, and at the worst, | some were dying. The studies were 11 pulled out to fight the gasoline lead re- c taxation effort. ___ t When this Information first came to be known, tHe~pamtTndustry volun tarily phased out the use of lead, even |wfnru forWaf nilf*s were imposed iu the 1970s. In 1973, the government also undertook to reduce the use of leaded gasoline, a process hastened by the in troduction on cars of catalytic con verters; which require unleaded fuel. Unfortunately, none of this dealt with the prime source. Children still would eat paint chips so long as there were old houses with the paint peeling off. Dr. J. Julian Chisolm, a pediatri cian at Baltimore City Hospital, did research indicating that children liv ing in modem housing didn't show any symptoms even if they were liv ing near highways with relatively high levels of lead in the ambient air. He concluded that changes in the lead levels in gasoline would have a "negli gible effect" on children's health. As to fears about learning prob lems, it certainly is plausible that brain damage could result from large lead intakes. But some of the studies that have attempted to establish a correlation at lower levels are being called into question. A much-cited study by Dr. Herbert Needleman of the University of Pittsburgh found that lead, evep in minute doses, im pairs IQ scores. But a Cleveland study by Dr. Claire B. Emhart could not du plicate that finding after allowance for other influences on IQ, such as parental IQ, home life, school quality and other socio-economic factors. We are not qualified to pass judg ment on whose research is the most valid, but it seems clear to us that there is far more disagreement among scientists on the lead issue than the attacks on the proposed regu latory changes acknowledged. And we are inclined not to believe that a few old cars driving down the streets of ghettos are poisoning the children who live there. V; N 4181 O PAGE TWO All's fair in love and politics, we suppose, bet it is exactly the use of this kind of tactic that has caused even some of the legitimate claims of environmentalists to be suspect. There is little reason to think that what the administration had in mind for gasoline lead would poison a single I child. That is not to say the lead studies have no basis. When this issue first came up in the 1950s. it was quickly discovered that lead in paint was the prime suspect. Later research has The economy is rich enough to sur vive the failure of the gasoline lead deregulation move. On the other hand, it is seldom admitted in these debates that a more efficient ecohomy, capa ble of producing more wealth and more jobs, would most likely do more for ghetto- children than some of the protections the environmental lobby is demanding. borne that out. In a syndrome known t We wish the Reagan administra as pica, children-particularly those tion would fight a little harder against in sluins-sometimes eat paint chips the environmentalist assaults. But or dirt contaminated by lead from old that of course requires it to under exterior house paint. They also inhale stand that there Is more involved here lead-tainted household dust from peel- than just helping out the lead indus ing and chalking old paint. try. We are not sure that it does.