Recently there have been a number of articles in the local press relating to lead paint hazards and its effect on children. The county of Albany is now being sued for $10 million. Albany County has paid out more than $4 million in verdicts and settlements from lead paint suits during the past three years. I'm surprised more local areas haven't been sued over this issue.

Lead paint poisoning isn't something new. Baltimore doctors reported the first case of childhood lead poisoning in America in the 1910's when they realized the cause was toddlers gnawing on painted cribs and other home furniture. Before this doctors thought that lead poisoning mostly affected the adult working class, especially those working in the paint and lead manufacturing industries.

In 1980, lead was banned for use in gasoline and the government lowered paint lead limits to .06%. In 1996, New York's highest court declared that childhood lead poisoning was perhaps "the most significant environmental disease in New York City." Yet, in 1999, NY's city council passed major revisions that weakened their own lead poisoning prevention laws, though fortunately it was later struck down by the state Supreme Court. Why does it seem that government administrations drag their feet on issues like this. Let's take Troy for example.

In 1987, yes, 16 years ago, my friend Ward Stone, NYS Wildlife pathologist came up with a lead testing kit so that ENCON officers could test for the presence of lead shot in hunted animals. I asked Ward for a kit so I could test it on several Troy apartments, known to have lead paint. The kit worked so well that on January 27, 1988, the Times Union featured an article on the kit and we offered to use it in apartments rented by low and moderate-income families. I received a phone call about a 10-year-old girl in North Central that had contacted lead paint poisoning. The family went through hell since the apartment was in public housing and the county health department would not let the family back in, and so was in danger of becoming homeless.

Fortunately it worked out for the family. I wrote and produced a 7-minute documentary on the girl for Our Town TV, a half hour show that appeared on local television. Armed with this story I composed a piece of legislation in September that would have forced slumlords in the city to clean up their lead polluted act. The city council never acted on it. I guess they didn't want the slumlords to sue them.

Lead particles ingested by the human body cause severe damage to the brain and central nervous system. Infants and young children are particularly at risk of lead poisoning, because their normal hand-to-mouth activity causes more frequent ingestion of lead laden particles, and, more significantly, because their brains and nervous systems are particularly vulnerable in their early developmental stages.

In most houses constructed before the 1940's (many after too), lead flavored paint was a common covering. In Troy, of the 23,093 housing units, 86.6% are occupied, and 11,976 are renter occupied, or 59.9% of the housing stock. Additionally, 14.3 % of the population is considered poverty level and 31% of them have children under 5. Some 30.4 % of poverty families are female head, no husband, and 56.2% of them have kids under 5. Here's the kicker, 58.8% of the houses in Troy were built before 1940.

Lead poisoning often goes unrecognized or under-recognized because it is usually asymptomatic. When symptoms do appear, they are the same as many other childhood diseases and impairments making it difficult to point to lead as the culprit. This was the case with the little 10-year old that I featured. Her mother noticed that she was getting lethargic and loosing concentration at school, but was alarmed enough to take her to a doctor.

While severely elevated blood lead levels can cause coma, convulsions, kidney damage, and even death, all levels of lead toxicity cause some brain damage and reduced IQ. Additionally, they can produce altered behavior such as attention deficit disorders (ADD), learning disabilities, and other cognitive and behavioral disturbances. In the case of resulting diminished intellectual performance, it is considered irreversible, which has significant adverse socio-economic impacts. According to studies, the loss of 4 to 6 IQ points from even low-level exposure increases by 80% the number of children falling into the borderline function IQ range. This puts them into special education needs and other services. Either way we, society, pay for it.

Shall we continue to pay medical, social, and now legal costs that result from not acting on the issue, or wouldn't it be money better spent in the pursuit of prevention?