High Lead Levels Found at Grade School

Preliminary test results released Tuesday revealed unusually high levels of lead at a Bell Gardens elementary school where parents called for testing over worries about two nearby chrome plating plants.

State officials said more tests are needed at Suva Elementary School to determine whether the lead poses any danger. The levels were high enough to compel state toxicologists to issue a health warning under Proposition 65, the anti-toxics initiative.

“We are concerned but not extremely concerned,” said Debbie Oudiz, a toxicologist with the Department of Toxic Substances Control.

An analysis of dust taken from a vacuum cleaner used at the school found lead levels of up to 470 parts per million. There are no state or federal standards for such samples, but the levels are four times higher than in vacuum samples at the adjacent Suva Intermediate School.

Oudiz said state officials are trying to determine the source of the lead and if children were exposed.

Experts say the most likely source of lead poisoning in schools is in paint. Suva Elementary was built in 1938, 40 years before lead was outlawed in paint.

A team of environmental experts has been testing the air, water and soil at Suva elementary and Suva intermediate schools in response to complaints from parents who worry that school grounds may have been contaminated by two chrome plating plants adjacent to the schools.

The fear is that the plating plants may have released dangerous levels of hexavalent chromium, a byproduct of chrome plating that can cause cancer after long-term exposure.

The hexavalent chromium tests have yet to be completed.

State toxicologists said they don’t believe the chrome plating plants are the source of the lead.