EPA, CDC officials testify to Senate on child lead poisoning

— -- WASHINGTON - A U.S. senator questioned federal environmental health officials at a hearing Thursday about what is being done to address lead poisoning risks posed by contaminated soil around hundreds of old lead factory sites featured in a recent USA TODAY investigation.

"Generations of children are growing up playing in the shadow of these lead smelting plants," said U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. "Throughout the nation, the USA TODAY report shows lead contamination has had a devastating impact … it's obvious we could help fix this problem if the EPA had the resources to fully test and clean up" the sites.

Lautenberg's comments came during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on the latest science on the effects lead has on children's bodies.

The studies show that even small exposures are associated with measurable reductions in IQ, increased incidence of attention disorders and other health problems in children, members were told by scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"No safe blood lead level for children has been identified," Christopher Portier, director of the CDC's environmental health center, testified.

Children can be exposed to lead from a variety of sources. While lead-based paint is the best-known source, a USA TODAY investigation earlier this year revealed the danger posed by lead-contaminated soil around forgotten factory sites that spewed lead particles into neighborhoods for decades before closing in the 1960s or 1970s. Other sources of exposure include soil contaminated from years of leaded gasoline emissions. Children can ingest lead particles by putting dusty toys or hands in their mouths.

John Vandenberg, an EPA official whose division evaluates scientific research, testified that human exposures to lead involve multiple sources, "including hand to mouth contact or inhalation of lead dust, eating peeling paint chips, drinking water conveyed through lead pipes, and exposure to soil, which can act as a reservoir for deposited lead emissions."

Portier told the committee the No. 1 source of exposure for young children is lead-based paint in homes.

The CDC in May announced that for the first time in 20 years it was changing the federal definition of lead poisoning, reducing by half the amount of lead in a child's body that should trigger protective actions by parents and health officials.

The CDC estimates that more than 500,000 U.S. children ages 1-5 have blood-lead levels above the new standard, which is 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. About 150,000 children are estimated to have lead levels above the old standard of 10.

During the hearing, Lautenberg expressed concern about a former smelter site in Carteret, N.J., featured in USA TODAY's "Ghost Factories" series, which he called a "sobering report that puts this crisis in perspective."

"A lead smelting plant spewed toxic materials throughout the neighborhood," he said, yet only the factory's property was cleaned up after it closed decades ago - not any of the yards of people living in a nearby neighborhood. USA TODAY's tests found dangerous levels of lead contamination remain in neighborhood soils.