Lead-Tainted Classes Ready to Reopen

Seventeen classrooms at Walter Reed Middle School are expected to be reopened Monday after being closed to students while crews cleaned up lead contamination.

The residue came from lead-based paint on walls that were drilled to install wiring. The work began in March 1999 but the lead was only discovered Thursday, marking the second time in a month that inspectors have detected an environmental danger inside a San Fernando Valley school.

District officials closed Chatsworth High School on March 3 for four school days after finding asbestos, a carcinogenic fiber once commonly used as a fire retardant, in the walls of some buildings.

In response to that incident and the finding of asbestos at other schools in recent months, the Los Angeles Unified School District is reviewing all Proposition BB construction projects underway, a district official said Friday.

“We will evaluate inspections and personnel and will improve things where we can,” said Bill Panos, director of district health and environmental safety.

It was unclear Friday how many projects would be reviewed. District officials said 12,000 have been completed or are underway districtwide since the state measure was approved by voters in 1997.

Walter Reed Principal Larry Tash said he asked the district environmental health department to inspect the campus for asbestos after learning about the Chatsworth incident.

“When the kids are here, I’m the parent for the kids,” Tash said Friday in a news conference outside the school. “I don’t want them sitting in classrooms with any exposure.”

Communication Problem Is Cited

CRSS, the Van Nuys-based construction company doing work at Walter Reed Middle School, had an environmental consultant check the campus for lead, asbestos and other hazardous materials before construction began last March, said Gary Pons, an industrial hygienist for the district.

“[Lead] was surely found early on--this is not something we found [Thursday],” Pons said. “Where was the communication dropped? That’s it in a nutshell.”

He said the construction company, CRSS, was responsible for ensuring that hazardous materials were removed.

But Jon Danielson, a CRSS project manager, said he believed the environmental consultant hired by the district to conduct an initial inspection of the school was responsible.

Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities and health problems--such as kidney and abdominal damage and nervous system damage--if the lead is inhaled over long periods at high levels. Children 6 and under are especially vulnerable because they are more likely to put flakes of paint in their mouths, Pons said.

“This is not lead-based paint that was sandblasted,” he said. “It was holes drilled. The likelihood of long-term health impact is small. The greatest exposure was at the time it was done and to the workers when they were doing the drilling.”

Lead tends to remain contained, in contrast to asbestos, an airborne fiber.

No Student Illnesses Have Been Reported

At Walter Reed Middle School, construction occurred only during after-school hours, Tash said.

No students have reported being sick, and no parents wanted to keep their children home because of the lead contamination, he said.

The lead was found in the interior of structures built in the 1950s and ‘60s. Pons said lead has been found at only a few Proposition BB school construction projects.