Officials Seek to Allay Fears on Lead in Mini-Blinds

State and federal officials who are worried about possible lead poisoning from imported mini-blinds--commonly sold in most home improvement stores--are scrambling for answers to calm worried consumers.

In recent months, studies conducted 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 within the next 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 release lead dust would be cause for widespread alarm. “Absolutely,” Begala said.

On a state level, experts in the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program are conducting tests before advising county health departments on how to handle the situation.

“We just had a meeting about mini- blinds last week,” said Jill Garellick, from the center in Emoryville. “We’re putting together an advisory for the counties about what they should do.”

Los Angeles County officials have been on the alert about the potential hazard from the blinds since March, when they received a bulletin from Arizona state health officials, said Margo Derry, director of the lead poisoning program for the county Department of Health Services.

She said county health investigators now check the blinds when attempting to find the source of lead poisoning in a building.

“To date, we haven’t found any blinds that have led to child poisoning,” Derry said.

Ventura County’s chief health officer, Dr. Gary Feldman, said his county also 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.”

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

It is the youngest children, 6 and under, who 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 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 this 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 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 it exceeded state standards by 100 times.

According to Barbara Miller, spokeswoman for the Window Cover Safety Council in New York, imported vinyl blinds 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.

But even if a child has to 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.

Times staff writer Paul H. Johnson contributed to this story.

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Safety Checklist

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 the presence of lead, 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 poisoning symptoms in your child, see a doctor. Symptoms include anemia, hearing loss, hyperactivity, limited attention span, behavioral problems and learning disabilities.