Thousands of children across our state lose intelligence points to lead. Medical experts say none of us are as smart as we could have been because we’ve been exposed to this toxic substance.
Leaded gasoline filled our air. Lead paint filled our homes until the 1970s when it was finally banned.
Lead is a neurotoxin, especially deadly to developing brain cells in children from birth to age five.
“As physicians, we’re obligated to screen kids for lead poisoning at 12 and 24 months,” said Dr. Rich Kennedy.
Dr. Kennedy sees many of the Rochester children who are, or may be, lead poisoned. They come to his inner-city health center.
“There is not much we can do from the exam rooms. We can educate parents about nutrition and hand washing and so forth, but kids get lead poisoning from their houses,” Dr. Kennedy said.
The place many kids call home -- low income housing -- is some of the oldest and most poorly maintained property in our cities. Leaded dust in created by crumbling paint, especially along windowsills, doors and porches. The dust ends up on a young child’s hands or toys, the things they put into their mouths.
Recent studies show lead poisoning can affect a child’s intelligence. Our Diana Palotas has more.
Once the lead is inside their bodies, it doesn’t come out. Lead robs them of their intelligence.
“The lead sneaks in where calcium is in this little one or two year old and replaces the calcium with lead. If you do that enough in the brain, then the brain cells that rely on calcium lose out, so the brain doesn’t develop normally,” said Dr. David Broadbent of the lead coalition.
Many children who are lead poisoned act like they have attention deficit disorder.
“What they found was very alarming and startling. That lead levels of 10 that stays at 10 were associated with a 7.4 percent drop in IQ,” said Dr. Broadbent. “The trouble is you can’t see that in any given kid, but if you look at the whole population, you’re dropping the IQ of kids in Rochester by seven to 10 points.”
Medical experts say that IQ drop can take a lead poisoned child from finishing high school to dropping out, from fining work in this economy or ending up on social services.
“The challenge is to help people understand that you’ll never know what the IQ would have been if lead had not been a part of the life of the child,” Dr. Broadbent said.