By Alexis Grant
The Houston Chronicle
Published 01/27/08

GALVESTON — Nearly one in five children in Galveston has enough lead in their blood to cause learning disabilities and behavioral problems — an alarming statistic that officials have known for years but have done little to improve. 

Across the country, officials in other cities have managed to reduce the number of poisoned children by making housing lead-safe, testing children who are most at risk and applying for grants to fund those programs. 

In Galveston, they're just waking up to the enormity of the problem: lead-poisoning rates that are nearly 10 times higher than the national average — a toxic legacy of the city's old housing. 

"It's almost mind-boggling that it would be sitting there with these kinds of averages," said Ruth Ann Norton, executive director of the Baltimore-based Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning. "They need to do some things now." 

The issue finally is gaining traction because of a well-publicized report released by Baylor College of Medicine in November. That prompted local officials to create a task force to develop a plan. 

Other small municipalities have found themselves in similar predicaments, partly because most federal lead-abatement money goes to large cities. Galveston now has a chance to become an example for small cities, task force members say. 

"We're at a crossroads for an opportunity to really develop a model program," said Dr. Mark Guidry, chief operating officer of the Galveston County Health District, who was appointed co-czar of the task force. 

The 1-in-5 statistic, provided by Baylor researchers and based on data from the county health district, isn't new. Red flags have been raised for years by The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, which published similar test results. But until now, few people noticed. 

"We wanted to kind of open up the problem to the world," said Winifred Hamilton, lead author of the report and director of environmental health at Baylor. "Nothing was being done. It had been decades and decades that they'd known about the problem, (and) children continued to be poisoned." 

The study was based on data, gathered between 1997 and 2003 by the county health district, that showed the percentage of children with high lead levels hovered around 19 percent. 

History of lead

Old houses are the root of the problem — and Galveston has a lot of them. About three-quarters of the city's housing was built before 1978, when residential lead-based paint was banned. Even more dangerous are houses built before the 1950s, when paint contained as much as 50 percent lead. 

Many of this coastal community's old houses are inhabited by low-income residents who can't afford to renovate. Some don't know they're living in homes where young children can be poisoned by eating just one paint chip off a peeling window sill. 

Lead dust, too, can contaminate food, carpets where children play and soil outdoors. Residents who do construction work at home unknowingly exacerbate the problem. 

City Manager Steve LeBlanc said Galveston officials have taken several steps to address the problem, including regulating power-sanding and making some houses lead-safe through the federally funded Healthy Homes program. 

But he acknowledged that more could have been done. 

"Over the last 15 or 20 years, obviously, what we've put in place has not gotten the job done," said LeBlanc, who has been in office for 10 years. 

Once the task force makes its recommendations, he plans to make them a priority, he said. 

Lead has long been known to cause irreversible neurological damage and behavioral problems, including lowered IQ, hyperactivity and even criminal behavior. Children are the most vulnerable because their brains are developing. 

Often, however, children show no outward physical symptoms except when the levels of lead in their blood reach extremely high levels. They can then experience headaches, fatigue, vomiting, convulsions and even death. 

The lack of obvious symptoms makes it difficult for some parents to understand the severity of the illness. 

"She acts like a normal child," said Roshonda Domingeaux, whose 2-year-old daughter, Viviana Hill, was diagnosed recently with lead poisoning after a routine doctor's visit. "You can't tell." 

Domingeaux knows the old house they live in could account for Viviana's exposure. One possible culprit is the beige paint peeling off the ceiling above Viviana's bed. 

A nurse from the Galveston County Health District is expected to visit her home soon to help determine the source, a service provided for children with high blood-lead levels. 

The lead task force, which met for the first time early this month, likely will focus on educating the community and improving testing of young children. There's also a push to implement lead-safe housing regulations and remove lead from the island's many old buildings, a costly task that could require outside funding. 

Difficult criteria

Galveston likely will have difficulty obtaining federal funding because screening methods used by some health professionals there don't meet federal standards. That means some children who are diagnosed aren't counted by the state or the CDC. 

The federal agency counts only tests done by venous sample, blood taken from a vein in the arm, or two capillary samples, which take blood from a finger prick. 

But many of Galveston's tests include just one capillary sample, and not enough children there are tested, said Teresa Willis, manager of the blood lead surveillance group for the Texas Department of State Health Services, which collects data from laboratories and sends it to the CDC. 

For that reason, CDC records show just four children in Galveston County were diagnosed with lead levels of at least 10 ug/dl (micrograms per deciliter) in 2005. 

Local and state officials acknowledged far more children were diagnosed that year, although no one has an accurate total count. 

"We know we may have many more (cases)," said Dana Wiltz-Beckham, chief epidemiologist for the Galveston County Health District. "What's the true picture? That's a valid concern." 

Task force members are debating whether Galveston should adopt a mandatory screening program, perhaps for children entering daycare. Children enrolled in Medicaid already are required to be screened at 1 and 2 years, but many toddlers still don't take the $7 test. 

Screening data are used by federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to decide which cities receive money for lead abatement and education programs. 

"If they indeed have a high prevalence rate, they'd want to be able to demonstrate that," said Brian Sullivan, an HUD spokesman. He said Galveston was eligible for the agency's main lead-abatement grant but likely wouldn't qualify without better data. 

Other federal monies also are out of reach because of Galveston's small population, about 60,000. One popular grant administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funnels money for lead abatement to the state health department, which in turn gives it to Texas' three most populous counties because they have the most poisoned children. 

Pushing requirements

Experts agree that screening is crucial to understanding the scope of the problem and locating hazardous homes, though some would like to see an emphasis on lead abatement as a preventive measure. 

Experts say Galveston officials should consider further ordinances to encourage abatement, including laws that require homes to pass a lead test before being rented or sold. In some cities, officials have released the names of landlords who own properties that contain lead, both to notify residents of the problem and push owners to take responsibility for cleanup. 

About 20 percent of the children in Galveston who tested positive for lead lived in properties owned by 12 landlords, according to the Baylor study.

For More Information Contact:
Kurt Koopmann
Public Information Officer
Galveston County Health District
409-938-2211 or 409-392-0007
kkoopman@gchd.org