October 2, 2003

Lead threat poses concern
for Iowans in older homes

Dolly Butz
digital iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa--Iowa parents have something to be concerned about. Something in their homes has the potential to make their children sick, and they are probably not even aware of it.

"By the time a child has symptoms, they could actually be in very great danger," Rita Gergely, chief of the Bureau of Lead Poisoning Prevention, said.

Iowa's rate of lead poisoning among children age 6 and younger is more than double the national rate, according to health officials. The rate of lead poisoning is related to the percentage of housing built before 1950.

The Iowa State Health Department generally sees an increase in the number of cases reported in the summer time, when the windows are open and children are playing outside. The number of cases reported drops during the winter time because windows are closed, preventing the exposure to dust and paint chips in the window troughs.

"We have lots of old houses," Gergely said. "Children are exposed when they come into contact with paint chips or with house dust that has lead in it through routine childhood activities such as crawling on the floor or putting things in their mouths."

Gergely said that even if children do not swallow the paint chips, but just by putting their toys or hands in the dust and then repeatedly putting it in their mouths, they can be poisoned.

"Most of the children that we look at in the moderate level don't have any symptoms," Gergely said.

When children ingest lead, they absorb more than an adult would. The more lead ingested, the more damage that occurs. Children under the age of 3 are at the greatest risk for brain damage because they are at a critical stage of brain development.

Gergely said that although a lot of Iowans still are not aware of the threat of lead in their homes, she thinks that awareness has signigicantly improved since the state's lead prevention program began 10 years ago.

"We are really promoting the testing of children," Gergely said. "If a physician tests the child, obviously that is going to make the parents more aware of the problem even if the child's level is normal at the time."

Besides promoting testing, the Iowa State Health Department is aiding Iowa counties financially to help develop their own programs to promote awareness.

"I think a lot of people associate older housing and lead paint with the East Coast because there has been a lot of publicity there," Gergely said. "Even at the national level, it is talked about as being a problem in inner cities, and I'm not sure a lot of people in Iowa even consider Des Moines to have an inner city."

Gergely said it is pretty easy to pick out the areas in Des Moines that contain older housing with lead-based paint. The Drake University neighborhood is one of those areas, but Gergely cautioned that city residents are not the only ones who need to be concerned.

"We have to fight those perceptions that it's a big city issue, whereas in Iowa, it's just as much of a problem in the rural areas where their isn't any new housing as it is in the more urban areas of the state," Gergely said.

Iowa residents have two options when it comes to making sure that their homes are lead-free. They can either hire an inspector to come in and look at their home, which can be costly, or they can call the State Health Department's toll free number and receive publications that instruct them on how to inspect their homes and what to look for.

"In general the paint on the outside of the house and the paint inside of the window troughs is by far the highest in lead," Gergely said.

Even though the state increased its funding for lead prevention programs by $39,547, only three cities in Iowa--Waterloo, Dubuque and Marshalltown--have specific programs to help pay for hazard repair, but they are restricted only for certain income levels and often require home ownership.

"Many times people can do quite a bit even if they don't take care of every single problem in the house," Gergely said. "Just by making it a priority to keep the paint in good condition, working on the places that the child has the greatest access to first and restricting the child's access to areas where there is the greatest hazard can make the difference," Gergely said.