6 Parks Work Around Lead-Cleanup Efforts

Attendance was down Thursday at six Los Angeles parks and day-care centers that have hazardous levels of lead in paint, but officials said the decline might have been due to the holidays rather than to health concerns.

At the same time, city parks officials decided Thursday to close day-care and preschool buildings at Rustic Canyon, Sylmar and Banning parks and to move children to other structures.

“It’s easier to use an adjacent building than to cordon off all of the areas they identified [with problems],” said George Stigile, assistant general manager of the city’s recreation and parks department.

The concerns about lead came to light Wednesday after a survey by the county Department of Health Services found paint containing dangerous levels of lead at six parks. The city announced that portions of those parks would be closed temporarily.

At Shadow Ranch Park in West Hills, preschool teacher Pat Ward said seven of 13 children showed up Thursday morning, but she attributed the drop to the Christmas holidays, not concerns about lead.

“They roped off the problem areas,” Ward said. “A couple of parents asked about it. But they weren’t concerned at all about it. They said their children don’t eat paint.”

Still, a half-dozen nervous parents called a county lead-poisoning hotline Thursday to get more information on the alert.

“They wanted to know where they could get their kids tested and what are the symptoms,” said Zaida Lopez, who operated the county hotline. “They were kind of nervous.”

At Rustic Canyon, a winter camp group of fourth- and fifth-graders moved its activities outdoors, Stigile said.

At Travel Town, where county health inspectors found high lead levels in chipping paint on some of the full-scale trains, the large engines and passenger cars were cordoned off, but the miniature train, museum and gift shop were open.

Children ages 6 and younger are particularly susceptible to lead poisoning, which can cause brain damage. County health officials said it is usually prolonged exposure that poses a health risk, so visiting Travel Town twice a year is not likely to be a problem.

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City officials are concerned about buildings used for preschool and day-care classes, and have taken steps to keep children away from walls, windows and playground equipment identified as having high lead levels.

John Schunhoff, operations chief of the county health department, said parents of children who are known to play in dirt or touch dusty surfaces and then put their unwashed hands in their mouths might want to have the youths’ blood tested. Parents with questions about the lead problem can call the county Health Department at 1-800-LA4-LEAD.

Repairs are expected to take a couple of weeks, after which the areas will be reopened to the public, Stigile said.