High Lead Levels Found in D.C. Kids

In April 2004, a WASA contractor's crew digs to expose and replace lead pipes in the 1500 block of 44th Street NW. (By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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The news of the study came the day after the new EPA administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, pledged in a letter to employees that protecting children from toxins would be one of her top priorities in office.

David Bellinger, a well-known neurologist at Harvard University who focuses on the effects of lead and other toxin exposure on children, said he is struck that the number of young children with unsafe blood lead levels more than doubled in some targeted neighborhoods during the lead crisis.

"That's a big increase, and even the lower increase for kids with moderate risk is reason for worry," he said. "Compared to other kids in the U.S., these kids [in D.C.] were getting exposed to a lot more lead than other preschoolers."

If earlier reports were so limited in their scope, researchers should have avoided sweeping conclusions, Bellinger said.

"If these data were available previously, I would be surprised that anyone would be assuring the public there was no problem," he said. "It's hard to say in hindsight how much they should have known, or how deeply they should have probed. But without looking at the study, it surely sounds like the earlier statements made were falsely reassuring."

The CDC study was limited, according to public records and some environmental researchers.

CDC researchers tested the blood lead of 201 people in 2004. The residents had been warned in 2003 of unusually high lead levels in their tap water. They had been advised to use alternative sources for drinking water, and all the children were using bottled and filtered water when tested, according to their parents, and were thus unlikely to have high blood-lead levels.

Some of the public health officials said this week they had wanted later to analyze the possible links between blood lead and leaded water. Tee Guidotti, a George Washington University environmental health professor who was under contract as WASA's health adviser, said he stands by his findings in a 2007 report that average blood-lead levels were generally falling in 2003 and 2004, when water lead levels were generally rising.

"Do I wish we were better understood? Do I wish certain things were said differently? Do I wish we'd had better data? Sure," Guidotti said. "But those things were out of my control. In terms of what was under my control, I have no regrets about my role."

Walter Smith of the nonprofit advocacy group D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice said his organization is still pushing for independent testing of the water.

Of the report, he said, "This casts further doubt on the reliability of the agencies who told us not to worry and are still telling us not to worry. We're talking about the health of little children. It's not like this is some insignificant issue."

Database editors Dan Keating and Sarah Cohen and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.