Lead Poisoning Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Feds, Local Health Agencies Looking At High Lead Levels In Clarksburg Drinking Water

Federal regulators have joined West Virginia officials in reviewing water service lines in Clarksburg for elevated levels of lead in drinking water.

Sampling in several homes in the area showed lead levels above a health safety limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The situation in Clarksburg is concerning, and as a precaution we encourage all families living in homes built before 1950 to use bottled water for consumption and have children younger than six years of age evaluated for lead,” said Dr. Ayne Amjad, state health officer and commissioner of DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health. “Working together with our federal partner, the Environmental Protection Agency, we will assure safe drinking water for the residents of Clarksburg. Additionally, the state is committing funding toward lab analysis of water samples for lead content.”

The issue of lead service lines was first identified by staff in the Bureau for Public Health’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program during environmental lead assessments conducted in the homes of children diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels. Water samples in several homes serviced by the Clarksburg Water System were above the EPA’s action level (15 parts per billion).

The Clarksburg Water System will implement a corrective action plan that will include additional sampling, increased frequency of monitoring, installation of a corrosion control system and an alternate source of drinking water and/or point of use filters for homeowners where elevated lead levels are known from existing sample results and where known or suspected lead service lines exist.

“EPA is committed to address lead in the nation’s drinking water to ensure communities like Clarksburg are protected,” said acting EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Diana Esher. “Addressing lead in drinking water requires partnerships, and EPA is dedicated to working with West Virginia to improve public health.”

Parents of children younger than six years of age who are living in older homes serviced by the Clarksburg Water System should discuss the risks of lead exposure with their child’s pediatrician to determine if precautionary blood lead testing is needed. Additional steps all consumers can take include flushing water lines used for drinking and cooking and using bottled water for making baby formula. Experts caution that boiling water does not remove lead from water.

Questions regarding the Clarksburg Water System and the risk for lead exposure in the water should be directed to Bob Davis, Clarksburg Water System Chief Water Operator, at 304-624-5467, extension 121.

Helpful EPA resources:

Basic Information About Lead in Drinking Water

Important Steps You Can Take to Reduce Lead in Drinking Water

Lead Poisoning and Your Children

Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home (translations available)

Protecting Children’s Health

Childhood Lead Poisoning Rates Dropping in West Virginia

The most common way children are exposed to lead these days is from the lead-based paint almost universally found in homes built before 1980. (Lead-based paint was outlawed in the late ’70s.)

When the paint deteriorates and chips, it causes dust particles that can be inhaled or even eaten (think slobbery teething toy belonging to a 10-month-old on the floor next to an old baseboard covered in lead-based paint).

Kelly Reindel-Swan’s youngest daughter poses in her living room. Her older sister, Laurel (who is asleep) had elevated blood lead levels when she was around the same age.

In some West Virginia counties, as many as 86 percent of the homes were built before 1980, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Poverty compounds exposure risk; fixing paint is expensive.

But the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, which essentially just tests and monitors children under the age of 6 for elevated blood levels (and provides medical care when necessary), seems to be making a difference. From 1997 to 2013, elevated blood lead levels in children under the age of 6 have dropped from 2.26 percent to .37 percent of the population.

(Last year, the CDC redefined “acceptable blood lead levels” from 10 micrograms to 5 micrograms per deciliter.)

Terrifying Results

But for those in the .37 percent, the experience of having a child test high on blood lead levels can be both confusing and terrifying.

“Our experience was with my child who’s almost 5 so it’s been awhile,” said Kelly Reindel-Swan, of Ohio County. “But we just had the standard one-year blood test for lead levels.”

The Reindel-Swans lived in an old home (more than 100 years old). Even though their daughter never had symptoms of lead exposure and their home was in good condition, the 15-month-old tested high.

Reindel-Swan was shocked and immediately began implementing steps to decrease family exposure, such as increasing handwashing, taking off shoes when entering the home and cleaning with disposable wipes (to lessen the chance of cross-contamination).

Testing for Lead Poisoning

In a recent interview, West Virginia Commissioner of Health Rahul Gupta said lead poisoning often causes no initial symptoms. Its complications generally arise later and include behavior or attention problems, hearing problems, reduced IQ, slowed body growth, aggressive behavior, hearing loss and infertility, among other things.

Through the government program, children are tested at primary care facilities for elevated blood lead levels at 1 and 2 years of age. Results are reported to the state and high-risk counties are monitored closely. In West Virginia, those include Brooke, Lewis, Mineral, Monongalia, Ohio, Roane and Wirt.

A few years after Reindel-Swan’s daughter was found to have lead in her blood, her nephew, a boy belonging to her younger brother Danny, also tested high. A state employee came to their home to figure out where the contamination was coming from.

“She found in our house, what she basically already knew because she has tested so many houses, and that’s that all the woodwork had been painted with a lead-based enamel, and also everything on the exterior of the house,” Swan said.

The tester explained that lead-based paint used to be the best paint available – it was incredibly durable – and so it was used to cover interior woodwork and anything on the outside of the house.

“And that’s problematic because your woodwork is the stuff that’s constantly abraded – you have wooden windows that are sliding up and down, so you have paint dust coming off of them all the time, doors where they rub on the top of the door against the door jam, and then the exterior of the house obviously tends to chip a lot anywhere it is exposed to weather,” Swan explained.

An Expensive Problem

In some West Virginia counties, as many as 86 percent of the homes were built before 1980, according to the 2000 US Census. Poverty compounds exposure risk; fixing paint is expensive.

“We were so fortunate to have the time and resources to address the problem and the problems were relatively small and easy to deal with,” Reindel-Swan said.

She explained that her family ended up replacing all the windows in their home – an expense they would not have been able to manage had family members not been able to step in and provide financial assistance. Although a state lead tester came to her home, the state was unable to provide monetary assistance for remediation.

“I know so many families who even shy away from having their kids tested because they are terrified that they won’t be able to fix the problems because of the expense especially,” she said. “It’s a big issue in older homes.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

WVU Researchers Ask: Are Lead Poisoned Vultures the New Canary in a Coal Mine?

A new study out of West Virginia University finds that lead poisoning in vultures is way more prevalent than expected. Researchers say the source of the lead is ammunition and coal-fired power plant emissions – prompting one researcher to liken vultures to the canaries miners once used to gauge if a coal mine was safe or not.

Finding Lead

“Bone acts as a sink,” said doctor of veterinary medicine, Jesse Fallon. He explained that bodies can mistake lead for calcium and suck it into the bone where it will stay for a long time, even years.

Fallon is the Director of Veterinary Medicine for the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia which is a nonprofit that treats and rehabilitates injured, ill, or orphaned wild birds. Through this work and ecotoxicology training, Fallon has become an expert on lead poisoning.

"The presence of lead in these vultures is indicative of a threat that humans face," said researcher and now wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Todd Katzner. "We view these vultures as indicators, as canaries in the coal mine."

He was involved in the recent vulture study helping researchers understand the physiological ramifications of lead exposure, and how lead moves through the body and where to look for it.

That’s why Shannon Behmke cut into the femur bones of just over 100 vulture carcasses – to look for lead.

“Reading more of the literature I understood that most of these vultures would have lead exposure or signs of lead exposure within their organs, but the extent to which we found it in the femurs was incredible,” Behmke said.

Looking for the Source

Behmke, the lead author of the study, found evidence of significant lead exposure in every bone she examined, which indicates persistent exposure throughout the birds’ lives. Vultures typically live about ten years, so this study is an indicator of environmental exposures over the last decade. But that’s not all she was able to determine.

“We did isotope ratio analysis,” Behmke said. “It pretty much gives ideas of where the sources could be of this lead. And what we found were isotope ratios similar to those found in lead ammunition and also lead emission from coal fired power plants.”

Shannon Behmke, lead author on study of lead exposure in vultures.

There were a couple other sources, and isotope ratio analysis of lead is an inexact science, but Behmke says ammunition and coal-fired power plants seem to be the major sources of lead.

The New Canaries

“The presence of lead in these vultures is indicative of a threat that humans face,” said researcher and now wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Todd Katzner. “We view these vultures as indicators, as canaries in the coal mine.”

Katzner points out that vultures are obviously breathing the emissions that we breath. West Virginia had coal-fired generating units at 20 locations in 2005. Three have been retired, and American Electric Power says three more are supposed to go off line next month.

Katzner also says it’s also important to think about lead ammunition, especially in a state that harvested about 40,000 bucks during last year’s firearms season alone. Vultures often eat discarded gut piles. Most of those animals were killed with lead ammunition. Since that lead is making its way into the birds, Katzner says, chances are, it’s also probably making its way onto our tables. But even low levels of lead are dangerous.

Effects of Lead Exposure

Fallon explains that low levels of lead exposure can affect the body neurologically, in tissue and organs, and by impairing reproductive abilities. He explains that higher levels of lead exposure can cause anemia and neurological injury which can lead to blindness, seizures, weakness and even death. Fallon says this is certainly true for birds, but also for humans – especially children who are developing a nervous system.

The Centers for Disease Control reported that “at least 4 million households today have children living in them that are being exposed to high levels of lead.” CDC says no safe blood lead level in children has been identified. And since lead can affect nearly every system in the body, and leave no obvious symptoms, it frequently goes unrecognized. In a recent report the CDC wrote that compelling evidence shows that low levels of lead exposure are associated with IQ deficits, attention-related behaviors, and poor academic achievement.