Healthy Indoors Magazine - USA Edition

FEATURE— January 2017 20 num's tract had the sharpest rate of elevated child- hood tests in the state, or 30 percent since 2010. "Really? I didn't know about it," said Viburnum Mayor Johnny Setzer. Mark Yingling, an executive in charge of health and safety at The Doe Run Company, which op- erates nearby mining and smelting works, said the high rates were "news to me." Doe Run deploys safety measures, Yingling said, such as washing all of its trucks that may come into contact with lead, and containing tail- ings and emissions. Lead workers shower and change outfits at the end of their shifts, to avoid tracking toxins into their homes. Health officials haven't recently informed Doe Run of any local children with lead poisoning, he said. Iron County's health department said it isn't required to provide such information, and never has. In fact, lead contamination in the community is pervasive. The Environmental Protection Agency has mandated so-called Superfund cleanups of two contaminated lead sites in and around Viburnum. And Doe Run and other mining firms are current- ly under federal orders to clean up lead contamina- tion from 150 properties in the region and test the soil at 250 more. The order, issued by the EPA in June, says these activities should "prioritize" proper- ties where children have had high lead tests. Among the spots the EPA ordered to be cleaned or tested: playgrounds, daycare yards or other places where small kids gather. WIC, conducted hundreds of childhood blood lead tests annually. That testing, which has stopped, re- lied on outside funds from HUD and others. South Bend pediatricians and the local Head Start program still order screenings, but many children go untested. "I bet there are hardly any tests being done now," said WIC program director Sue Taylor. "The funding dried up." Edward Brown Jr., 2, was first tested last year. He'd been living with his mother, Victoria Marshall, in a central South Bend home. An inspector found lead paint inside and contaminated soil outside. Marshall says Edward's blood lead reached 90 micrograms per deciliter. Levels that high can be life threatening, provoking seizures or coma. Ed- ward's blood levels have receded since he was hospitalized for a week. Now in a new home, Edward danced around and shared applesauce with his baby sister. He has met many of the typical developmental mile- stones for his age. Still, Marshall worries. "He's got a lot of energy. Some people say he might have ADHD," she said. One-in-five cases of ADHD may be linked to lead poisoning, a recent American Academy of Pediatrics report concluded. 'Getting Leaded' In Missouri, it's a six hour drive southeast from St. Joseph to rural Viburnum in Iron County, situated in a mining district known as the Lead Belt. Vibur- LEAD WORKER: Antonin Bohac, a mechanic at the Brushy Creek Mine, with son Sawyer, 2, at the Bixby Country Store in Bixby, Missouri, as worker Joyce Chandler looks on. Bohac himself was diagnosed with high lead levels. REUTERS/ Whitney Curtis IRON COUNTY INDUSTRY: The Doe Run Com- pany's Resource Recycling Facility, in Boss, Mis- souri, located in Iron County, an area with a high percentage of children with elevated lead levels. The company said it takes steps to avoid lead problems. REUTERS/Whitney Curtis

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