Mary Sue Schottenfels, executive director of CLEARCorps, a nonprofit group that kick-started the cleanup of the Thomas home, said her organization and others lobbied for new city laws that now hold landlords accountable for keeping properties lead-free. Under a 2010 law, landlords must check homes built before 1978, and if lead is found, they cannot rent them until they are cleaned up to state standards.
Thompson said population declines and demolishing of older homes also have led to fewer lead-poisoned kids in Detroit. The city’s population has plunged 25 percent since 2000, and its rental vacancy rate is about 19 percent. In addition, under Mayor Dave Bing, the city has demolished 6,700 vacant homes and buildings in the past three years.
“Basically in a shrinking city, less children are getting exposed,” Thompson said.
No safe levels
Last October, the CDC cut its guideline for lead in half, to 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood, in response to mounting scientific evidence that low levels can harm children’s developing brains.
Under the new health guideline, 10.2 percent of Detroit children age 6 and younger had excessive lead levels in 2011, compared with 33.3 percent in 2004 that exceeded that level, according to data from the Michigan Department of Community Health. For Cleveland, it’s 17.6 percent of children, and for Milwaukee, 12.9 percent.
All those percentages remain much higher than the national average – 5.8 percent in 2011.
Nevertheless, Detroit now has 70 percent fewer kids with lead levels considered unhealthful. Based on the previous CDC guideline, the improvement was even greater – more than a 90-percent decline between 2004 and 2011.
Researchers and medical professionals applauded the lowering of the federal threshold. But they say it may not be low enough.
“Scientifically, there is no safe level of lead exposure,” said Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, who specializes in childhood exposures to lead and other toxics that affect the brain.
It appears that impacts of lead occur even at blood levels below 2 micrograms per deciliter, Lanphear said.
Also, exposure to low levels leads to a quicker loss in IQ points, he said. When children’s blood lead levels increased from 2.4 to 10 micrograms per deciliter, IQs dropped by 3.9 points, compared with a 1.1 point drop when levels increased from 20 to 30 micrograms per deciliter, according to a 2005 Lanphear study.
Lead has been linked to poor school performance among Detroit children. City researchers found that children with higher lead levels were more likely to need special education, and, as blood lead levels went up, students’ math, reading and writing scores dropped, according to a 2010 study. Children with blood lead levels as low as 5 micrograms per deciliter also are more likely to be arrested, according to a 2008 study by the University of Cincinnati.
Poorer children consistently have higher levels of lead. But, even controlling for income and other factors, black children still have blood levels 50 percent higher than other races, Lanphear said. Research suggests black children metabolize the metal differently. That magnifies the problem in places such as Detroit, which is 83 percent black.
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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.