Lead Czars Chronicle

GALVESTON — Two top Galveston County health officials volunteered Monday to share the title of "lead czar" and head up a task force to confront one of the highest child lead-poisoning rates in Texas and the nation.

The new lead czars accepted the title at a meeting on how to deal with a study showing that 19 percent of Galveston children 5 and younger suffer from lead poisoning, compared with 1.6 percent nationally.

Lead czars Dr. Mark Guidry, chief operating officer of the county health district, and Dr. Ben Raimer, who heads community health services at the University of Texas Medical Branch, were among officials representing key organizations concerned about the study.

Raimer said that children in his neighborhood in the early '90s had lead levels so high that they had to undergo treatment and that his dog twice tested positive for lead poisoning. Research since has uncovered the seriousness of lead contamination, Raimer said.

"I think it's a long time coming," he said about the formation of the task force.

The appointment of a lead czar was one of 14 recommendations in "Childhood Lead Poisoning in Galveston, Texas," a study by the environmental health section of Baylor College of Medicine, which was made public last month.

The meeting of 12 organizations was organized by the Harris & Eliza Kempner Fund, which contributed $27,000 in primary funding for the study.

Galveston has a particularly serious problem because 77 percent of the housing behind the sea wall in the city's East End was built before lead-based paint was banned in 1978, said Winifred Hamilton, the study's chief investigator.

The study found that 19 percent of children younger than 5 had 10 micrograms of lead per 1/10 liter of blood, more than five times the amount needed to impair a child's intelligence, Hamilton said.

She told officials that studies have closely linked lead levels and violent crime.

"There is no safe level of lead," Hamilton said.

The seriousness of the Galveston problem was captured in a remark by Pam Diamond, community outreach director at UTMB's Sealy Center: "Please God, don't let us walk out of this room and nothing happens."

Diamond said that lead poisoning was a likely cause of problems for many children in special education classes.

The city was represented by many officials led by City Manager Steve LeBlanc.

LeBlanc pointed out that the city has an ordinance regulating the removal of lead paint from the exterior of buildings, but not the interior.

Hamilton said the study showed most were unaware of the regulation, and many thought it had been repealed.