Why Does Lead Poisoning Still Afflict Tens of Thousands of Kids in NJ?
This is the first story in a two-part package investigating lead-poisoning and New Jersey’s children.
Elevated levels of highly toxic lead have been found in more than 3,100 young children in New Jersey so far this year, according to preliminary data.
The number is on pace to rival last year’s total: 3,599 children under six with high lead levels. All told, about 225,000 young kids in New Jersey have been afflicted by lead since 2000.
“It’s amazing to me that no one’s doing anything about it in New Jersey,” said Elyse Pivnick, environmental health director at Isles Inc., a nonprofit community development and environmental organization based in Trenton.
If more than 3,000 kids “came down with a rare virus that was going to affect the rest of their life in New Jersey or in the nation, we would be talking about it,” Pivnick said. “We would be looking for some solution and we’re not and it’s wrong.”
Historically, most of the state’s lead-poisoned children are in poor, minority families living in old urban areas, including Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, and Trenton.
Although a state spokeswoman calls New Jersey’s lead-abatement program a success, others argue that lead is the foremost threat to children in the Garden State. And the fact is, the fund dedicated to easing the situation has been regularly raided by the past few governors — with the tacit approval of the Legislature.
Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said in an email that “the reduction of childhood lead poisoning in New Jersey is a public health success story. The number of children with lead poisoning has declined dramatically over the past 20 years. At the same time, the number of children tested each year for lead poisoning has increased significantly.”
Despite that characterization, lead remains the top environmental threat to children’s health in New Jersey, according to the state Department of Human Services. Young children are the most vulnerable to lead, which can permanently damage the brain and lead to lifelong learning issues and behavioral problems. Preventing exposure to lead is the most important step parents, doctors, and others can take to protect children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, despite the number of lead-poisoned kids, governors and the state Legislature have diverted at least $53.7 million — and possibly $100 million-plus — from an anti-lead-poisoning fund to the general treasury since 2004, according to the Office of Legislative Services, which serves the Legislature.
New Jersey created its Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund nearly 12 years ago to help remove lead from homes or isolate lead contamination, pay for the emergency location of households with lead-poisoned children, provide extensive education and outreach, and pay for training on how to keep buildings lead-safe.
The fund was also designed to identify lead-safe housing through a Web-based Lead Safe Housing Registry. But the application is offline, which is both troubling and a shame, since it was intended to boost the detection of lead-based paint and dust hazards through free dust-wipe kits, and pay for X-ray analyzers for local health departments.
Pivnick called the massive diversion of lead fund dollars “shameful.”
“We have ways to make homes lead-safe,” she said. “We’re not doing it and we’re continuing to ruin children’s lives.”
In June, the state Senate approved S-1279, which would have added $10 million to the cash-strapped lead fund in fiscal 2015. But the fiscal year ended on June 30 without any money being added to the fund.
This month, the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee approved the bill and the Assembly version (A-2325), amending the measure so $10 million would go into the lead fund in fiscal 2016, which began July 1. The panel sent the legislation to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for possible consideration.
If the full Assembly approves the measure, the Senate would have to vote on it again, according to Trish Graber, spokeswoman for the Senate majority office.
Under a 2004 law, $7 million to $14 million a year in paint and surface-coating sales-tax proceeds is supposed to flow into the lead fund. That means $77 million to $154 million was slated for the fund from fiscal 2005 through fiscal 2015. But the fund netted only $23.3 million and the rest went into New Jersey’s general fund, according to the Office of Legislative Services.
Gov. Chris Christie’s past five state budgets, including his fiscal 2016 spending plan, have provided not a penny in sales-tax revenues toward the fund.
Arnold Cohen, senior policy coordinator at the nonprofit Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, said “it’s outrageous that this governor has taken dollars from … the fund for lead poisoning that should be addressing this issue.”
Brian T. Murray, Christie’s press secretary, said in an email that “New Jersey is dramatically lowering incidents of lead poisoning and exposure. While the number of children tested annually has climbed considerably, there has been a remarkable drop in the number of children found to have lead poisoning. That’s the story.”
Some 3,599 young kids had elevated lead levels last year, down from 24,448 in 2000.
Getting the lead out
Lead, a naturally occurring heavy metal, has been widely used in paint and many other products over the centuries. But it accumulates in bones and teeth, and it is especially harmful to young children, according to the World Health Organization. No lead level is known to be safe.
Children may place objects coated with or containing lead, such as tainted soil or dust and decaying paint chips, in their mouths or swallow them, according to WHO.
Lead in paint dust and paint chips in older homes — those generally built before 1978 — is one of the most common causes of lead poisoning, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead pipes, fixtures, and solder. But even plumbing in newer homes that is legally deemed “lead-free” may have some lead.
Products that may have lead include painted toys, furniture, toy jewelry, and cosmetics. Some folk remedies with lead, such as “greta” and “azarcon,” are used to treat an upset stomach, according to the EPA.
The latest lead data
This year through November 13, 3,110 children under six years old in New Jersey have had at least 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood for the first time in their lives, according to preliminary data. The total for all children under 17 is 3,426.
The CDC recommends “case management” and public-health efforts to curb children’s exposure to lead when concentrations hit 5 micrograms. From 2011 through last year, the average lead level in 1- to 5-year-old New Jersey children was less than 2 micrograms, according to the state health department.
Still, levels less than 5 micrograms have been associated with attention-related behavior issues, increased “problem behaviors,” lower IQ and academic achievement, and reduced cognition, according to the National Toxicology Program.
But unlike some other states, New Jersey has not adopted the CDC’s 5 microgram “reference level.”
The state health department’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention website states that the CDC “defines lead poisoning in children as a blood-lead level of 10 micrograms per deciliter … or above.”
However, the CDC no longer uses its 10-microgram “level of concern.”
Leusner, of the state health department, said the agency is working on amendments to childhood lead-poisoning rules. Reviewing CDC recommendations is part of the process, she said.
According to state data, the number of young children with 5 or more micrograms of lead plummeted from 2007 to 2008 — from 18,690 to 10,987 — and then to 7,805 in 2009.
Leusner listed multiple reasons why the numbers dropped substantially since 2007. They include a growing focus on prevention, reducing children’s exposure to lead and efforts to eliminate potential lead hazards from housing.
A heightened awareness of lead poisoning’s impact on the developing brains of children, the 1978 ban on the use of lead-based paint in homes, the phase-out of leaded gasoline in the 1980s, and a decrease in lead-contaminated soil also helped, according to Leusner.
Federal rules also required workers to be trained in lead-safe work practices and certified. In addition, federal officials banned children’s products with too much lead, she added.
Pivnick laments what she sees as a failure to prevent lead poisoning and help lead-poisoned children in schools.
“We had an opportunity to make homes lead-safe and … the money was taken from the (lead fund) program,” she said, “and our educators don’t know who in their school even (has) elevated lead levels. There’s no effort to tailor programs for these children. There’s no research about how to best work with these children. It’s a crime that no one is paying attention to this.”
Lead “has an impact on how children learn and you don’t see it as much in the early years, but for vulnerable children, it’s likely to be a huge problem in their later years as they’re trying to learn and … succeed in the world,” she said.
“We wring our hands about the education disparities between some of our urban and suburban districts and we’re not even looking at this contributing factor,” she commented.
Todd B. Bates, a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service, is a freelance environmental, health and science writer, and an investigative reporter. He was a staff reporter for New Jersey newspapers for nearly 35 years. His most recent assignment was covering the environment and severe weather as a member of the Investigations Team at the Asbury Park Press.
Originally published at www.njspotlight.com on December 1, 2015.
This story is part of Dirty Little Secrets, a series investigating New Jersey’s toxic legacy. Participating news partners include New Jersey Public Radio/WNYC, WHYY,NJTV, NJ Spotlight, Jersey Shore Hurricane News, WBGO, New Brunswick Today, and the Rutgers Department of Journalism and Media Studies. The collaboration is facilitated by The Center for Investigative Reporting, with help from the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State.
