Document rpw7GVG2LeLdjDdjwg0bJOqbv

r r JUN131967 Baltimore City Health Department WEEKLY LETTER TO THE MAYOR Wk0 23 In his WEEKLY LETTER TO THE MAYOR dated June 9, 1967, the Commissioner of Health wrote? Dear'Mayors ' The Baltimore City Health Department is warning all parents that lead paint is still a serious danger to young children, especially during the warm summer months0 Already in 1967 a total of 7 children have teen poisoned by eating paint flakes, paint chips, peeling paint, or painted plaster,, One child, a two year old, died in January<> In the same five-month period 19 children have been reported with elevated blood leads, indicating they had been nibbling painto These!cases were detected through the alertness of physicians or parents and the children were placed under care early in the course of poisoning., These children should make a good recovery 0 . It is our hope that more parents will be alert to this danger of teething age children which is signalled by a child eating paint flakes or painted plaster0 Such observation should compel the parent to take the child to a doctor right away0 If this is hot done continued nibbling over a period of days or weeks will result in neurological and other symptoms including apathy, pains in the abdomen, nausea, constipation, headaches and convulsions0 The end result of continued eating of lead paint is paralysis and deatha 'The lead paint poisoning problem in Baltimore is no longer restrictedt'to the inner section of the city0 . Child poisonings now occur wherever there are unsuparvised young children and homes painted with lead paint0 ' This disease of early childhood which has claimed the lives of 136 children since 1931 end caused permanent disabilities in almost 1,000 more, can be overcome.only by parental knowledge of the danger, the removal of peeling'.paint'-and the''supervision of young children until they have outgrown the `dangerous lead paint "years, about'the time they go to school, .., Very .truly...yours, (Signed) RoberfEcPar"bersMoD0 " Commissioner of Health \ 4-, VT ,'t - . N39089