http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/09/nyregion/09LEAD.html?ei=5070&en=bdb9bde14699bd2a&ex=1056340800&pagewanted=print&position=

1 in 3 Children in Brooklyn Area Exposed to Dangerous Lead Levels, a Study Finds

By DIANE CARDWELL
 

bby Bah, whose son Omar had high levels of lead in his blood, found out that the dust on the windowsills of her Brooklyn apartment had more than five times the amount of lead the Environmental Protection Agency deems safe. Cheri Lewis-Fontanez and her husband, David, learned that their 15-month-old son might be at an even greater risk, since the amount of lead discovered near the windows of their apartment nearby was more than 28 times greater than the safety threshold.

The families live in two of the 59 apartments that were tested for lead in a three-month study in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where lead poisoning rates have remained high despite a steady citywide decline. The study, conducted by the Pratt Area Community Council using high school students trained in an E.P.A.-certified course, concludes that one of three children in the area lives in dangerous conditions.

"The results of our study are shocking," said Gabriel Thompson, an author of the report, who is on the staff at the Community Council. "Our findings also have significance for residents of other Brooklyn neighborhoods, many of which have similar housing stock."

According to the report, to be released today, more than a third of the buildings tested were found to have at least one apartment with a hazardous amount of lead, and 32 percent of the individual apartments tested had dangerous lead levels ranging from 5 to 100 times the federal threshold. Working mainly within a 12-block area, testers including 10 students from the Benjamin Banneker Academy in Clinton Hill took several dust wipe samples from each apartment in April and May to determine lead levels.

Although New York banned the production of lead-based paint decades ago, it is common in many old homes and can become a threat when apartments are poorly maintained or are renovated.

An epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pamela Meyer, would not evaluate the findings, although she said she was not surprised by them. High rates of lead, both in the city and nationwide, tend to be most common in housing built before 1950 in low-income, urban minority neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant. In a study of pre-1950 housing in Chicago last year, Dr. Meyer said, about a third of the children had elevated blood lead levels.

"We're finding that large numbers of kids in the old cities have elevated lead levels, but it can cut across socioeconomic boundaries," Dr. Meyer added. "We hear reports of people gentrifying these old buildings: `Oh gosh, I was pregnant and remodeling, and I just didn't think lead was a problem around here.' "

Ms. Lewis-Fontanez, who suspects that the high concentration of lead in her apartment is a result of workers exposing the original masonry when they installed new windows, tends to agree. "We're not what you would call economically poor at all," she said. "I pay $1,100 a month for rent."

A parent monitors children's health carefully, she said. "When you're a working person, you go get them tested, you get their vaccinations, but you just don't think about something like this," she said.

Although lead rates have been steadily declining in the city, pockets of higher rates have persisted along a so-called lead belt running from Williamsburg and Fort Greene through central Brooklyn into Queens. From 1995 to 2000, nearly 95 percent of city children identified as suffering from lead poisoning were black, Hispanic or Asian.

"Bedford-Stuyvesant is clearly one of the higher-rate areas, and that's been true," said Jessica Leighton, an assistant commissioner at the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In 1995, she said, there were 166 children with blood lead levels greater or equal to 20 micrograms per deciliter, the level at which city officials will take environmental action. By 2000, that number had dropped to 42 children. Dr. Leighton said that the department would be releasing new numbers soon and that the decline was expected to continue. "The most important thing we're seeing is that blood lead levels have been going down," she said, "but we still need to be doing more and not letting up. It's still one of the main environmental problems for children around."

Dr. Leighton said the city mainly followed a Centers for Disease Control guideline that recommends taking some sort of action if a child shows a blood lead level of 10 or more micrograms per deciliter. If the blood level is 20, health officials will investigate to find the source and monitor the child's condition, Dr. Leighton said. The Health Department takes similar action if two readings of 15 or greater are found in samples taken 90 days apart. Below that, the department will alert the family and the child's doctor and recommend further testing and monitoring.

Some recent studies have suggested that significant damage can occur at lower levels, and some advocates and parents say the government should do more. The report recommends that the city lower its definition of lead poisoning to 5 micrograms per deciliter, work more closely with community-based organizations to ensure universal blood-lead screening for children under 6 and more aggressively inspect buildings in high-risk neighborhoods.

Although Dr. Meyer questioned whether such an approach would be feasible, it would probably satisfy Ms. Bah, whose son Omar, 3, had a lead level of 13. She said Health Department workers told her they could not come test her home unless his levels were higher. "The woman told me, `Wait a little while, and maybe it will go up,' " the report quotes her as saying. "But I didn't want it to go up."

So she tried to keep his hands out of his mouth and then took him to be tested two more times, but his levels were not high enough to cause an investigation of her home. "I was thinking to myself: `What do I need to do? Feed my son spoonfuls of lead before they can help?' "

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company