Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Lead poisoning: Is your child at risk?
Tests urged for kids in high-risk neighborhoods
SHERYL KORNMAN
Tucson Citizen
More than 60,000 Tucson children could be at risk of lead poisoning, health officials warn.
The main culprit? About 133,000 Tucson houses and apartments built before 1978 that could contain lead-based paint now outlawed by the federal government.
While reports of lead poisoning in Pima County children are low, with 22 last year, officials warn that could be misleading because most children are not tested.
County health officials said young children who live in high-risk areas, defined by ZIP code, should be tested.
"I'm very passionate about this because the biggest thing is that lead poisoning can be prevented if we raise awareness and reach the populations that are targeted," said Laurie Riker-Finkle, the outreach coordinator for a new anti-lead effort by Our Town, a Tucson nonprofit agency.
Symptoms of lead poisoning include fatigue, stomach-ache, headache, irritability, insomnia, poor appetite, constipation and diarrhea. Undetected lead poisoning can cause death.
Mary Ellen Loughran knows all about it.
Her adopted 6-year-old twins, Anastasia and Katya, had high levels of lead in their blood when Loughran brought them home from Russia in 2003.
"I'm not going to take any guesses about where it came from. They seemed to be in a fairly safe and stable environment," she said.
The girls' pediatrician found the lead toxicity a month after they arrived in Tucson, in a routine blood screening, and they were treated with a medication that removed the lead from their blood.
The girls' blood tested normal and then abnormal again, after lead stored in their bones leached into their blood. The girls were treated again and have tested normal since.
"They have no signs of long-term exposure to lead. We just make sure they eat healthy," Loughran said.
Christine Cervantez Young is the Tucson-based health specialist for Arizona's Child Lead Poisoning Prevention Program and works for the state's Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Control.
It's her job to get the word out about lead poisoning risks and do home visits with families whose children test positive for lead.
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