More evidence shows lead exposure
Tests find ground where children play contaminated in Pa.
Children living near the former site of a huge lead factory in Philadelphia are six times more likely than children nationwide to have elevated levels of toxic lead in their bodies, according to a new federal study prompted in part by a USA TODAY investigation. Tests of soil where these children play found dangerously high levels of lead contamination in most of the samples examined.
The latest evidence that the neighborhood’s children are being exposed to harmful levels of lead comes more than three years after USA TODAY’s “Ghost Factories” investigation highlighted years of government failings and revealed dangerously contaminated soil at homes around the former site of the John T. Lewis-National Lead-Anzon lead factory that operated for nearly 150 years in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood.
The Environmental Protection Agency said it hopes to make a decision “within the next few months” on whether any cleanup will be done of contaminated soil.
“There’s a problem, and that problem needs to be addressed,” said Sandy Salzman, executive director of New Kensington Community Development, a neighborhood revitalization group. “Kids’ lives could be at stake.”
Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., who called for the EPA to study the Philadelphia site and others nationwide after USA TODAY’s investigation in 2012, said federal officials need to move more quickly. “EPA should expedite its study of this issue, so residents can have the peace of mind in knowing that this challenge is being tackled head on,” Casey said.
From about 1848 to 1996, vari- ous companies made lead products at the huge factory, which spewed lead dust from its smokestacks that would have landed in the yards of row houses that have long surrounded the site.
Though Pennsylvania environmental regulators required the last operator of the factory to address soil contamination inside the factory’s property boundaries around 1998, they did not require the company to do any assessment or cleanup of lead contami- nation in the surrounding neighborhood, USA TODAY has reported. The former factory site is a cement-capped retail area.
Exposure to even trace amounts of lead — particles so tiny they’re barely visible — can cause serious and irreversible harm to young children, especially to their developing brains. Though deteriorating lead-based paint in older homes is the most widely publicized source of exposures, contaminated soil and water also pose significant risks. Children are exposed to lead in soil when they play in the dirt or put dust-covered hands or toys in their mouths.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which headed up the EPA-funded study found about 11% of 126 children tested in the neighbor- hood near the old factory site had elevated levels of lead in their blood. Preliminary analyses indicate an association between leadcontaminated soil in outdoor play areas and levels in children, the CDC said.
The EPA is finishing a scientific review of a separate study it did examining soil samples to determine how much of the lead contaminating the area has the potential to be absorbed once it is inside the body. “EPA is reviewing the results to determine what, if any, implications this study will have on potential Superfund response actions at the site,” the agency said.
The CDC said it is difficult to know how the lead exposure of children in the study area compares with children in other parts of Philadelphia because the city’s Health Department uses different data collection methods.
Internal EPA records have showed reluctance by agency staff to clean up yards around the factory site because they are in an urban area where multiple sources may have contributed to the contamination.
Sandy Salzman, New Kensington Community Development “There’s a problem, and that problem needs to be addressed. Kids’ lives could be at stake.”