Lead-Poisoning Reports Raise Fears Locally

New concerns that household mini-blinds--readily available in home improvement stores everywhere--may be causing lead poisoning in children have Ventura County health officials scrambling for answers to soothe worried consumers.

In recent months, studies by the Arizona and North Carolina state departments of health have linked documented cases of child lead poisoning with vinyl blinds imported from China, Mexico and Taiwan.

Manufacturers are quick to dismiss both studies, but the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has launched its own investigation. While awaiting the final results--which should be available in a few weeks--public affairs director Kathleen Begala said the consumer agency is trying to avoid widespread panic.

“The main message is, let us do our testing,” Begala said. “We don’t want to alarm people right now.”

But she said any sign that deteriorating blinds do release lead dust would be cause for widespread alarm. “Absolutely,” Begala said.

In the meantime, Ventura County’s chief health officer, Dr. Gary Feldman, said the county has no recorded cases of children exposed to lead from mini-blinds and is waiting direction from state lead experts on how to proceed.

“The truth is that it is not impossible that this is a genuine hazard,” Feldman said. “But I don’t think this makes sense to deal with as a local initiative. If this is a hazard, this is a hazard throughout California.”

On a state level, experts in the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention department are conducting tests and developing an advisory for county health departments on how to handle the situation.

Lead poisoning can cause brain damage, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, hearing loss, impaired growth and behavioral problems in children. While it can’t be cured, the negative effects of lead poisoning can be counterbalanced by some methods, including dietary changes.

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Children 6 and under are most vulnerable because lead must be ingested to do any real damage. Toddlers are more likely to touch lead-ridden surfaces, then put their hands in their mouths or even eat chips of peeling old lead paint, the most common source of lead poisoning.

Even though the paint was banned in the 1970s, it remains in run-down apartment buildings and homes, resulting in a link between low socioeconomic status and the frequency of lead poisoning.

But officials say the garden-variety type of imported mini-blind, sold under American brand names, can be found in a much wider range of households, rich and poor alike.

“It doesn’t take a low socioeconomic status to have mini-blinds,” said Ed Norman, the program coordinator for North Carolina’s childhood lead poisoning prevention program. “They are very common in every kind of home.”

Norman, the father of a 16-month-old baby, said his findings on children in North Carolina were frightening enough to prompt him to go home and take down his own blinds.

In those tests, the homes of 23 children with lead poisoning were examined by Norman and co-workers. In seven cases, he said, they could find no other source of lead in the home, except for the mini-blinds, which were covered with a dust so loaded with lead that it exceeded state standards by 100 times.

According to Barbara Miller, spokeswoman for the Window Cover Safety Council in New York, imported vinyl blinds do contain lead. It is used as a binding agent when the plastic is poured into a mold. In the United States a more expensive compound is used as a binder, but in countries such as Mexico, China and Taiwan, use of the cheaper lead is favored.

“It gives it durability,” she said. “If you didn’t have it, your mini-blinds would look like spaghetti.

“You aren’t going to get lead poisoning from them unless you are chewing and swallowing the mini-blinds,” Miller added.

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But even if a child has to actually gnaw on a blind to get at the lead, Ventura County public health nurse Sally Maliskey said there is still cause for concern.

“That is what kids do,” Maliskey said.

Begala said the main mission of the testing the Consumer Product Safety Commission is doing is to see whether lead is leaching out of the blinds.

“All we know right now is that if a child were to bite off a piece of the blind and chew it, the child would be exposed to lead,” Begala said. “The question is, do they pose any other kind of hazard?”

Based on what he has seen in North Carolina, Norman speculates that blinds start to break down under exposure to sunlight, releasing lead in tiny particles. Begala said testing should be able to prove or disprove that theory.

Word of mouth about the potential hazard has been traveling around the country via the Internet. One Ventura County couple, David and Rebecca Nahman, who own a window covering shop in Thousand Oaks, learned of it while participating in a retailers’ chat group.

Curious, they went out to local home supply stores and bought a variety of the cheapest imported blinds they could find. They researched labs that did chemical analysis and sent off a sample to a firm in the San Fernando Valley. According to Nahman’s documentation, the results showed lead levels nearly three times the accepted standards in a new blind.

To start out with, the Nahmans didn’t exactly have altruistic objectives. They admit that they were interested in what the results might do to boost their own business, which sells only domestically made blinds.

“We thought, oh what a neat little promo type of thing this was for us,” Nahman said.

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The test results made him think more seriously about lead poisoning. He bought some home test kits and tried them out on the blinds he had bought around Thousand Oaks. They all turned a rosy pink, a sign that there was indeed lead in them.

But officials warn that the mere presence of lead doesn’t mean that children can ingest the metal.

“I think these people are a few steps ahead of themselves,” said Begala. “Even if the blind has lead in it, no one has established that the lead is going to be available to the child.”

The Nahmans contacted Ventura County environmental health officials, starting a chain reaction of concern. On Tuesday, a public health nurse visited the Nahmans’ store to show educational videos on lead poisoning and pass out informational pamphlets.

County health officials say parents shouldn’t panic. But if they suspect their children may have been exposed--anemia can be a tip-off to lead poisoning--they should check with their doctors. For low-income families, some free testing is available through local Child Health and Disability Prevention programs.

Barbara Miller said the industry association suggests yearly washings with a phosphate solution-- made by dissolving dishwasher detergent in hot water--to get rid of the dust and has published a pamphlet with directions. The pamphlet is available by calling (800) 506-4636.

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Hints to Prevent Lead Poisoning

What to do if you have plastic mini-blinds in your home:

* Check the manufacturer label. If they were made in China, Taiwan or Mexico, they may contain lead.

* To confirm lead presence, run a home test on a piece of the blinds. Test kits are available at home improvement stores as well as some baby specialty shops.

* If you find lead and have noticed any symptoms in your child, see a doctor. Symptoms include anemia, hearing loss, hyperactivity, limited attention span, behavioral problems or learning disabilities.

* If you can’t afford a visit to a doctor, the county can provide testing under its Child Health and Disability Prevention program. From El Rio, Oak View, Ojai, Oxnard, Saticoy, Ventura and west Camarillo, call 652-5960. In the rest of the county, call (800) 781-4449, ext. 4.