What would you do to protect your family from the harmful effects of ongoing exposure of lead paint? Most parents would do anything, including Jackie Martin and over 100 other families who live in row houses in Baltimore, Maryland who found themselves victims of a bizarre experiment conducted by an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, the Kennedy Krieger Institute.
It was all done in the name of federally-funded research claims Dr. Gary Goldstein, president of the institute, which is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. In an effort to find the least hazardous way to rid the numerous houses in Baltimore of harmful lead paint, a lead abatement research project was launched in the mid 1990's in which the researchers worked in concert with landlords of row houses in a controlled experiment. Landlords were instructed to rent to families with young children who were told that the homes had been cleared of lead paint.
Later, the families were recruited to be part of study, which would involve periodic blood testing of the young children, followed by a $15 check in the mail to the parents. At no time were these families told that the testing was to check for lead levels in their children's blood. Furthermore, the families were never told that they were being sectioned off into categories, depending on the actual level of lead paint left in the homes. Only a few of these homes were actually lead-free.
The lead paint abatement study became the subject of a court case involving two of the families, according to the Baltimore Sun, who felt that they had not been fully informed of the risks involved in the study and did not get advise when the children's blood-lead levels rose. The recent ruling of the Maryland Court of Appeals found fault with "a study in which healthy children were encouraged to move into lead-contaminated homes."
The court compared the study to the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study from 1932 to 1972, which denied treatment to poor black men so researchers could observe the progress of the disease. The Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Human Research Protections has launched an investigation into the case. The full text of the Maryland Court of Appeals ruling, which is attracting national attention, is available on the Maryland Judiciary web site.
High levels of lead have been found in American homes built prior to World War II. In the 1950's, the paint industry changed its standards, dropping the lead level significantly. Senator Kennedy (D- MA) helped pioneer an effort for a federal legislation on the lead issue. In 1972, the first government regulation, essentially banning all use of lead in paint was enforced. Perhaps as a result, there has been a 78% decrease in overall blood levels across the US between 1976 and 1991.
The number of residential homes built prior to the 1950's in Baltimore alone is close to 530, 000. The likelihood of these homes to still contain lead paint is 95%. There are approximately 976,000 homes built between 1950-1978- and of these homes, 75% are likely to contain the hazard.
Children are most vulnerable to the lead hazard between the ages of 0- 6 years of age. The most common way that a child falls victim to elevated blood lead (EBL) and lead poisoning is by hand-mouth ingesting of the dust that settles on household surfaces and toys. It is less often acquired by eating paint chips, a common misperception.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the effects of EBL and lead poisoning are, but not limited too: kidney damage, coma, seizures, learning disabilities, liver damage and death.
There are laws in effect to help the buyer/lessee. The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act, which requires the disclosure of lead-paint information about any residence built prior to 1978, is one. There is also a governmental brochure that must be distributed entitled, 'Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home.' The buyer should do lead based inspection within 10 days of buying or renting.
Pat Rioux
