It wasn\u2019t until Bridgeport lead inspector Charles Tate stepped outside the house on Wood Avenue that he saw, immediately, where 2-year-old Rocio Valladares was being poisoned.<\/p>\n\n\n
The paint around a window at the back of the house was deteriorating. Beneath the window was Rocio\u2019s favorite play area, a sloping basement door that was the perfect ramp for an energetic toddler. Next to the basement door was a patch of dirt where she loved to scratch with sticks. White chips of paint were visible in the dirt.<\/p>\n\n\n
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says 5 micrograms or higher of lead per deciliter of blood constitutes lead poisoning.<\/p>\n\n\n
Rocio\u2019s mother, Fanny Quille, said her daughter\u2019s blood tests show a lead count of over 70.<\/p>\n\n\n
Lead poisoning, a major systemic crisis, damages the health and development of hundreds of thousands of children across the U.S. every year, including thousands in Connecticut.<\/p>\n\n\n
Although Connecticut has worked hard in its fight against COVID-19, its efforts against the much older plague of lead poisoning have been halfhearted.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cUnfortunately, Americans, in typical style, tend to react to very dramatic things, but they don\u2019t tend to react to the chronic stories,\u201d said Yale pediatrician Carl R. Baum, M.D., director of Yale\u2019s Lead Poisoning And Regional Treatment Center.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cFor the most part, lead is an ongoing problem, and some of the lead levels that were seen in [the Flint water crisis of 2014] are nothing compared to what we see in New Haven,\u201d Baum said.<\/p>\n\n\n
He referred to one young patient the Yale clinic has been treating for over a year whose peak lead level was 118 micrograms. \u201cAnd we still haven\u2019t gotten it down to an acceptable level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) has reported 14,000 cases of lead-poisoned children under 6 since 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n
At least 2,000 children were poisoned every year from 2012 through 2016, DPH numbers show, with fewer cases reported in 2017 (1,665) and 2018 (1,332).<\/p>\n\n\n
However, testing deficiencies and gaps in reporting by municipalities and medical providers mean the true number of lead-poisoned children in Connecticut is unknowable and almost certainly higher than DPH\u2019s figures.<\/p>\n\n\n
Then there\u2019s the COVID-19 factor. Connecticut law requires children to be tested for lead twice before 3 years old. But Kaiser Health News recently reported \u201cmassive\u201d reductions in lead testing in many parts of the country, including the Northeast. Lead blood tests are usually given at children\u2019s 1- and 2-year-old checkups. Not only did the virus force many families to postpone or skip those visits, but people have also spent more time indoors, where children are most likely to be exposed to degrading leaded paint and lead dust.<\/p>\n\n\n
One of the most poignant aspects of this crisis is that children are often poisoned by their own homes. The interior and exterior walls of hundreds of thousands of homes have undercoats of leaded paint, which wasn\u2019t banned until 1978. As paint degrades, it chips and creates invisible leaded dust that can be inhaled or ingested by babies and toddlers as they become more active.<\/p>\n\n\n
Connecticut children are also victims of the state\u2019s weak lead inspection statutes, which reflects an extraordinary lack of urgency and concern for a problem that can cause permanent cognitive damage and neurological issues.<\/p>\n\n\n
In 2012, in a major shift, the CDC stopped advising investigations into sources of poisoning based on a child\u2019s lead level. Instead, the agency said, preventing any exposure to lead should be the priority because \u201cNo safe blood lead level in children has been identified.\u201d It did, however, recommend case management if a child\u2019s lead level was 5 micrograms or higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response, the other New England states toughened their laws and their actions.<\/p>\n\n\n
In Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island, a 5-microgram lead test result now triggers an active investigation into how and where a child is being exposed. New Hampshire\u2019s 7.5-microgram trigger is slated to drop to 5 in July, while Massachusetts requires investigation at 10 micrograms.<\/p>\n\n\n
In an emailed statement, Jim Vannoy, an environmental health section chief at DPH, pointed out that Connecticut, in fact, adopted the CDC\u2019s more stringent 5-microgram standard for action in lead-poisoning cases.<\/p>\n\n\n
But state law doesn\u2019t require active inquiry until a child\u2019s lead blood count is at least three times \u2014 15 micrograms in two tests given three months apart \u2014 or four times that level \u2014 20 micrograms in a single test.<\/p>\n\n\n
If a child shows 5 to 14 micrograms of the neurotoxin in a blood test, the state only requires a local health official to call the family or send them educational material about the dangers of lead.<\/p>\n\n\n
Just as COVID-19 has spotlighted racial inequities in housing and health care nationwide, the lack of a concerted campaign against lead poisoning has racial and racist undertones.<\/p>\n\n\n
Black children are poisoned at more than twice the rate of white children, and Hispanic children at 1\u00bd times the rate, in part because Black and Hispanic families are more likely to live in older, substandard housing.<\/p>\n\n\n
Despite Connecticut\u2019s mandatory screening laws, and despite DPH efforts to reach Black and Hispanic families, just 13% of all children tested in 2017 were Black, its latest available breakdown of race and ethnicity numbers show. Twenty-six percent were Hispanic, and 61% were white.<\/p>\n\n\n
Jennifer Haile, M.D., pediatrician at the Hartford Regional Lead Clinic, run by Connecticut Children\u2019s Medical Center, said, \u201cJust because we have [state] screening mandates doesn\u2019t mean the pediatricians are actually doing it. The numbers are getting better, but they\u2019re not great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
David Rosner, professor at Columbia University and coauthor of \u201cLead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of American Children,\u201d said, \u201cLead is a major indicator of a much larger problem we have in our culture and the racism that pervades it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
He added in an email, \u201cDo you think we\u2019d allow this outrage to continue if it were suburban white children who were its primary victims?\u201d<\/p>David Rosner<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n
An Insidious Enemy<\/h4>\n\n\n
For most of the 20th century, lead was added to paint to increase water-resistance and durability.<\/p>\n\n\n
When ingested, lead\u2019s damage can be irreversible. It\u2019s especially harmful to babies and young children, who are at their peak period of brain development.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cEven low-level lead exposure can negatively impact a wide range of cognitive functions, such as attention, language, memory, cognitive flexibility, and visual-motor integration,\u201d says a study on the website of the CDC\u2019s Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry.<\/p>\n\n\n
In June, social scientists at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio published the results of their 20-year study into the \u201cdownstream\u201d effects of lead exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n
After following more than 10,000 Cleveland children from birth through early adulthood, the scientists concluded, \u201c[C]hildren with elevated lead levels in early childhood have significantly worse outcomes on markers of school success, and higher rates of adverse events in adolescence and early adulthood, compared to their non-exposed peers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
Exposed babies and toddlers are lead sponges.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cKids who are younger absorb lead at [many] times the rate adults will absorb it,\u201d said Dr. Hilda Slivak, founder and former director of the Hartford Regional Lead Clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n
They\u2019re closer to the ground, and their breathing rates are higher than that of adults. Because they learn by crawling, touching and tasting, a floor with leaded paint chips and leaded dust is hazardous terrain.<\/p>\n\n\n
One City Does It Right<\/h4>\n\n\n
Residents in poorer cities are particularly at risk. Indeed, New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford consistently have some of the state\u2019s highest numbers of reported cases.<\/p>\n\n\n
Hartford\u2019s streets are lined with older, poorly maintained homes, quintessential sources of lead poisoning. From 2012 through 2018, the DPH reported nearly 1,150 lead-poisoned children in the Capital City.<\/p>\n\n\n
Yet because investigations are required only when children\u2019s lead blood levels hit 15 or 20 micrograms, Hartford\u2019s lead program looked into less than 12% of those cases, its own numbers show. In 2018, when DPH reported 109 children with lead poisoning, the program conducted 7 investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Haven invariably has the highest number of cases, with 2,266 children reported lead-poisoned from 2012 through 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n
It reported investigating 24% of properties linked to children with elevated lead levels in that period. New Haven\u2019s lead program has been mired in controversy over the past few years, and has been sued for inadequate inspection and enforcement of lead laws. The longtime program director and the city\u2019s public health director have resigned.<\/p>\n\n\n
Typically, investigations and lead abatement actions in Connecticut are triggered only by reports of a poisoned child.<\/p>\n\n\n
Except in Bridgeport.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have to wait till kids hit 15 or 20 [micrograms],\u201d said Audrey Gaines, who, as Bridgeport\u2019s code enforcement officer, manages environmental health, housing code and lead prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s not supposed to be there, why are you waiting for it to get higher before you help them?\u201d Gaines said.<\/p>\n\n\n
DPH reported 2,000 cases of lead-poisoned children in the state\u2019s largest city from 2012 through 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n
But after 2013, numbers dropped annually, and dramatically. In 2013, the city reported a high of 402 cases. In 2018, the city reported 137, a 66% decrease.<\/p>\n\n\n
This accomplishment so surprised Tsui-Min Hung, the longtime epidemiologist of the DPH lead program, that she called Gaines to ask what her secret was.<\/p>\n\n\n
Rather than relying on a child\u2019s blood test to point inspectors toward a contaminated home, inspectors focus on \u201cwhat the actual problem is, and that is the housing stock,\u201d Gaines said.<\/p>\n\n\n
The city reported inspecting nearly 1,900 buildings from 2012 through 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cIf our housing code inspectors find something that is in violation, and if there are children in those houses, they report it to my lead inspectors,\u201d Gaines said. \u201cIt\u2019s not rocket science. It\u2019s just simply working cohesively together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
Gaines also uses Connecticut\u2019s Uniform Relocation Assistance Act to move families when necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf \u2026 a landlord is not capable or not willing or cooperative enough to want to make the repairs in that unit, to make that unit lead-safe, then we start sending him to court,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, according to that Relocation Assistance Act, that family can be moved.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to go beyond state [lead] law,\u201d Gaines said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to create the culture to be progressive, to get what you want done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
She said the city is working to enroll the owner of Rocio\u2019s Wood Avenue home into a federal housing program that will cover the cost of lead abatement or removal. \u201cOnce the enrollment process is completed, all work will be completed within a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n
Angel Valladares, Rocio\u2019s 14-year-old brother, says his sister, who will be 3 in February, \u201cknows a few random words, but is not really speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
Their mother worries, he said, because Rocio cries a lot. \u201cShe\u2019s always crying,\u201d Angel said.<\/p>\n\n\n
And these days, he said, his mother \u201cbarely brings her outside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\n\nThis story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
Cover Photo: Fanny Quille with her children Rocio Valladares, 2; Beverly Valladares,7; Angel Valladares, 14; and Anthony Valladares, 7 months, in their Wood Avenue apartment in Bridgeport. Their apartment was inspected after Rocio\u2019s 2-year-old checkup, when she was found to have high levels of lead in her blood. Lead was found in the peeling paint at the exterior of the house, which was built in 1911.<\/p>\n\n\n
(Photo: MELANIE STENGEL<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n
Publisher\u2019s Note:\u00a0CTLN<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0c-hit.org<\/a>\u00a0collaborate to best serve the Connecticut Hispanic, Latino community.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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