.Press Conference – Ohio Lead Awareness Week
Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council
July 21, 2008

In Cleveland, East Cleveland, and Cuyahoga County, too many kids have too much lead and it is everybody’s problem. Of children tested in 2006, 20% in the entire County, 26% in Cleveland and 32% in East Cleveland had levels of lead that could diminish their life-chances.

Lead poisoning is a tragedy for the child and their family. When rates are this high, it is tragedy for the entire community. It is everybody’s problem. If you are worried about school performance, worry about lead. If you are worried about crime, worry about lead. If you are worried about workforce readiness, worry about lead. more

Of course, these are complex problems, with multiple causes and lead is by no means the only cause. But lead is a problem we can do something about.

Lead is a brain poison. And the learning and behavior problems that result from lead make it difficult to do well in school. Lead lowers IQ and increases attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorders. Lead makes it hard to learn, hard to sit still, hard to pay attention, hard to stay out of trouble. So children are much more likely to fail and drop-out, not be able to keep a job, and engage in delinquent and criminal activity.

Recent research from the University of Cincinnati adds to the growing evidence of a connection between early lead exposure and latter criminal behavior. The researchers followed 250 children pre-natal to adulthood. They measured blood-lead levels during pregnancy and regularly for the first six years of life.

The researches then checked criminal records at 18 years and older. They found that the higher the pre-natal and childhood lead levels, the more likely that there was criminal behavior in adulthood. Researchers have also used MRI scans to look at the actual brain damage attributable to lead.

Crime is just one of the costs society pays for not adequately dealing with childhood lead poisoning. Environmental Health Watch has done a rough estimate of some of these costs.

Most of the costs – for the children, for their families and for the community – cannot be calculated. How do you measure a child’s pain of not being able to succeed in school, the diminished hopes and dreams parents have for their children?

But for some interventions and outcomes associated with childhood lead poisoning, we can make reasonable estimates of the dollar cost. We looked at the lifetime costs for the 6500 children tested in 2004 with elevated blood-lead levels. For details

Our estimates are conservative, but the costs are enormous.

These estimates are huge, but they no doubt understate the actual costs to the community from lead’s toll on those 6500 children.

It is important to point out, of course, that not every lead-poisoned child will fail in school, not be able to hold a job, or become a criminal. But lead is a potent risk factor for all of these sad outcomes.

So, if you are worried about why schools are having such a hard time educating our youngsters, do something about lead. If you are worried about having an educated workforce to keep and attract employers, do something about lead. And, if you are worried about crime, do something about lead.

This means doing what you can to put lead high on the community agenda. We have too many kids, with too much lead and it is everybody’s problem.

See Putting Lead Poisoning on the Community Agenda.