On the Lookout for Lead : Children Near Industrial Areas Get Blood Tests as Parents Learn of Risks

The parents, with babies and toddlers in tow, had worried looks on their faces as a county health worker explained the dangers of lead poisoning in young children:

Irritability. Decreased intelligence. Stunted growth.

Arturo Olivas, the health worker, told the two dozen people that such problems can come from lead sources as diverse as peeling paint, metal juice cans from foreign countries, glaze on pottery, lead pipes in home plumbing or air pollution from the factory down the street.

“It’s really scary to think your children may not be as intelligent as they could,” said Gloria Moreno, 33. She was shepherding her son, Louis, 1, and daughter, Marcela, 3, into a line with other children waiting for medical technicians to draw blood for the tests that detect lead poisoning.

Health workers sought to replace fear with fact during the testing and educational program last weekend at Temple Elementary School in La Puente.

Overseen by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the testing was financed by a $148,500 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The study, begun last year, was designed to identify if manufacturing facilities in Los Angeles County are causing lead-related problems in children. Investigators targeted three groups of 120 children each in residential areas of Hacienda Heights, La Puente and Bell Gardens that surround factories where lead emissions occur.

“Lead is particularly toxic to young children and we want to make sure we don’t have any unhealthful levels present,” said James M. Lents, executive director of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

No major problems have emerged after testing in Hacienda Heights last year and in Bell Gardens this fall, health and air quality officials said.

“We did the study because we thought there was a potential hazard. So it’s good we found out there seems to be no problem,” said Amy Wohl, an epidemiologist with the county Department of Health Services. However, she said, the La Puente results will not be known until the end of the month.

But because lead emissions have tended to be higher in the Hacienda Heights and Bell Gardens areas, officials theorize that the La Puente tests will reveal no significant problems.

In recent years, concern over lead poisoning in children has prompted a tightening of safety standards. Federal health officials in the Bush Administration called it the No. 1 environmental threat to children and reduced the threshold for what was considered a dangerous level of lead in the bloodstream.

Under the revised standard, a child with 10 micrograms or more per deciliter of whole blood would be considered in danger.

Gov. Pete Wilson in 1991 approved legislation to start the nation’s most comprehensive program to test for lead poisoning in children ages 6 months to 6 years.

And last year the AQMD, to the delight of environmentalists, approved stricter standards locally. The new rules require about 225 companies in the region to improve their pollution control devices for lead by July, 1994.

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Children absorb lead into their systems more readily than adults and therefore are more susceptible to lead poisoning. It is a particular problem in low-income neighborhoods where older buildings still have lead-based paint (banned for most uses since 1977), or where factories emit lead or where vehicles fueled by leaded-gasoline pass near houses and apartments.

In Los Angeles County, among the several hundred cases of lead poisoning annually, most occur in South-Central Los Angeles and East Los Angeles.

Health officials said that it is important to screen children because they often do not show symptoms of poisoning and that early detection helps in treatment.

Results of the Hacienda Heights and Bell Gardens testing showed that only a few of the children had levels at the federal standard of 10 micrograms and health officials say those cases did not require individual treatment.

A control group of children in West Covina also was studied. Their levels, along with those of most of the children in Bell Gardens and Hacienda Heights, were less than 5 micrograms, and Wohl said that was considered normal.

The presence of the RSR Quemetco Corp. facility in the City of Industry prompted the testing of children in nearby Hacienda Heights.

The plant, along with two other company facilities in Indiana and New York state, recycles one in every three automotive batteries recycled in the nation.

At the City of Industry site where 200 employees work, lead is removed and refined in a smelter, according to plant manager Robert Finn. The material is then sold back to battery companies to be used again, he said, and plastic from batteries is recycled to be used for batteries or for nursery flower pots.

In July, 1991, AQMD officials said that lead emissions from the plant were recorded at a level which slightly exceeded the standard that will go into effect in 1994.

However, Finn and AQMD officials both say that there was no violation of any state or federal pollution laws at that time.

RSR Quemetco Corp. plant manager Robert Finn said: “Our primary concern has always been for our employees’ safety and for the health and welfare of the community.”

Finn said that “if the study (of Hacienda Heights children) does indicate there are no problems, then we are delighted.”

The testing in La Puente was done because GNB Battery Technologies is located nearby in the City of Industry. The firm, which has 220 employees, manufactures automotive batteries. In the process, lead emissions occur. AQMD officials say the plant has not received any lead-related citations.

GNB spokeswoman Silvia Ross said the firm “fully supports this testing program.”

Health and AQMD officials said that the screenings raise awareness in parents about the need for preventive medicine.

As Olivas of the health department talked with parents in Spanish and English, he told them they need to take care to clean their houses so that dust containing lead does not accumulate.

“In this area there are a lot of lead-using facilities,” he said. “You have two freeways, the 60 (Pomona) and the 605 (San Gabriel River). Before this year, gasoline used to have lead in it. Where did that lead go? Lead is going to be in the soil and in the air.”

After Myrna Calderon, 25, heard this, she told Olivas it seemed difficult to guard against lead poisoning. “We always are thinking about the safety of our children. But my daughter is very curious. I can’t watch her every minute,” she said, holding the hand of daughter Alicia, 2.

But Calderon said that she would take Olivas’ advice to be extra careful. “This weekend we’re going to clean. Clean the garage, the walls and vacuum. Clean everything.”