Largely due to new laws, cleanup efforts and a diminished population, the number of children in Detroit with elevated lead levels has fallen dramatically over the past several years.
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DETROIT – When Renee Thomas moved into her two-story home two years ago, she had no idea it posed a hidden threat to her four children.
But a new city law forced her landlord to check the century-old house for lead contamination. Old, deteriorating paint had left lead dust on its windows, floors and porch. Through a patchwork of grants and city partnerships, the contamination was cleaned up.
“They kept cleaning the floors … cleaning them over and over again,” Thomas said. “It was in the windows, in the doors and on the railing going upstairs. They replaced all of that.”
Armed with new laws, paintbrushes and industrial vacuums, Detroit over the past few years has declared war on the toxic metal that has long plagued its neighborhoods. And it appears to be winning.
The number of Detroit children with lead levels exceeding a newly revised federal guideline has dropped more than 70 percent, from about 10,000 kids to 2,900 since 2004. Experts say a new emphasis on cleanup or demolition of homes, a shrinking population and stricter city landlord laws have spurred the improvement.
Similar drops in lead poisoning have occurred in other Rust Belt cities, including Cleveland, Chicago and Milwaukee.
“Over the past 12 years, there’s been a push to get rapid intervention for kids exposed, abatement in contaminated homes and enforcement for landlords,” said Lyke Thompson, director of Wayne State University’s Center for Urban Studies.
Nevertheless, the number of children with elevated lead levels in Detroit and these other cities remains much higher than the national average, and low-income people of color are most at risk. More than 10 percent of Detroit children 6 years old and younger still exceed a lead guideline set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year.
Making matters worse, federal funding for local programs has been slashed, threatening the progress made in Detroit and other cities.
“The problem is slowly going away,” said Robert Scott, an analyst with the Michigan Department of Community Health. “But we want the number to be zero.”
Low levels of lead affect children’s IQs, their ability to pay attention and how well they do in school, according to the CDC. It also has been linked to violent and antisocial behavior.
Cities in the industrial Midwest historically have high rates of lead poisoning because they have a lot of old housing built before 1978, when lead was banned in paints. About 94 percent of Detroit’s homes pre-dates 1980, compared with 58 percent nationally, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
Experts agree that indoor dust is the major source of exposure. But these cities also had lead smelter sites and other factories that generated lead dust. Randy Raymond, a geographic information specialist with Detroit Public Schools, mapped the city's problem areas for lead and found that most were near former car and battery manufacturing plants. And new research suggests that in the summer, when Detroit children spend more time outdoors, their lead levels spike because contaminated dirt is kicked up by winds and held in the air by humidity.
A coalition of researchers, medical professionals, community organizations and government agencies known as the Detroit Lead Partnership has spearheaded much of the city’s progress in cleaning up lead contamination, Scott said.
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10 Comments
Add CommentPerhaps, instead of imprisonment for petty crimes young people should be be tested for lead poisoning and treated for that first. Give them a second chance and save them and the legal system.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat is great news and Jean makes an interesting point. There are ways to remove lead from a person's system, so it is something to consider.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow is it that the effects of lead were known well over a hundred years ago, and we are still 'getting rid of it?'.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStrange how we can go to another country and essentially cover it in lead bullets and that's OK.
That may come to be the ultimate weapon. If you can't beat them, dumb'um down. Firing lead rounds could be considered chemical warfare, the effects of which damage the core essence of self, our brain, for at least a generation.
If you look at the removal of lead from gasoline and the crime rate in the USA, you can see a nearly 20-year lag between lowering lead exposure and lowering crime rates. While correlation does not prove causation, the fact that lead exposure impedes brain development in many ways that cause criminal tendencies is powerfully convincing evidence that these environmental laws have a lot more benefits than people think.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUnfortunately, I don't think there's any way to eliminate from adults the accumulated effects of lead poisoning suffered during their mental and biological development as young children...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe folks you want to thank for having lowered several generations cognitive potential are the auto industry and
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisvarious metal smelting plants along with no waste management.
Indeed the giants of industry knowingly poisoned millions.
So do take heed as the menace is not yet over. Just imagine the other industrial nations that have little or no pollution controls. The world will endure more generations of lowered potential.
Being a science magazine and stating the figure 70% means?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReal science would reference the basis for the figure. What was the population figure then and now for which 70% improvement was noted?
Perhaps the authors could flesh out these articles more.
While we are on the topic of lead, I think it would be appropriate to ban, or at least tax, lead ammo, like bullets and pellets. Also, leaded AVgas, which is still used in older planes needs to be phased out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf exposed to lead when very young the damage is already done. You can remove the lead but not the cognitive loss.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood article, but it focuses on household paint! The greatest source of lead for children can be the back yard, thanks to auto exhausts, prior to lead being banned. Thanks to industry denial, obviously still very effective, people concentrate on paint, when just one lick of a hand after playing in the dirt can exceed the daily tolerable intake.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/12/soil-lead-researcher-howard-mielke
Detroit is the home of the automobile, yes? The fall in lead in children could just be the result of removing lead from fuel.
If they're serious, they still need to look at lead residue in soil.