Getting The Lead Out

The Early Show is on lead's case. "Anchor Moms Against Lead," our self-styled, anti-lead squad of anchors and correspondents who are mothers or pregnant -- show you why it's so dangerous, where you can find it -- many of the places may surprise you -- and what you can do about it.

Lead's Medical Impact, And Symptoms

Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay, herself a mother of three, explained why lead in the body is such a big concern.

She pointed out that a lot of recent headlines have focused on concerns about toys whose paint has lead content, and those concerns are, of course, real, because you don't want exposure to lead to add up.

Adults working in heavy industries can be exposed to lead released by manufacturing or other processes.

But the most typical source of lead exposure, especially for children, is still very old buildings.

Years ago, when plumbers soldered pipes together, they often used compounds containing lead. If that solder is still there, it can contaminate drinking water.

But the main source is usually old paint on the walls.

Lead in house paint was phased out about 30 years ago, but if your house or building was constructed before the mid-1970s, there may be an old coat of lead-based paint under the fresher paint. As newer paint peels, older paint is exposed, and can find its way into children's mouths. So, many kids are still exposed to lead in those older homes. They eat it, and they breathe dust from ground-up paint chips. And it hurts them.

Lead travels through the bloodstream and can ultimately affect just about every organ in the body. But the damage can be especially pronounced in the brain and nervous system. Both the ability to learn and think, and motor functions, can degrade over time. Lead can severely damage the kidneys, whose job it is to filter impurities from the blood. When a woman is pregnant, exposure to high levels of lead can cause a miscarriage, and of course her unborn child can suffer permanent damage to his or her brain, nerves and other organs while still in the womb.

I's extremely important to know that high lead levels may produce no symptoms at all. You can't count on having warning signs. But high lead levels can produce fatigue, or poor concentration, or behavioral problems. If a child swallows enough lead, it can cause a severe stomach ache. High lead levels can also cause pain in muscles or joints.

So, if any of these signs appear, tell your doctor. But even if there are no signs, don't assume there's no problem.

A simple blood test can determine whether a child has been exposed to too much lead.

If a child's cognitive abilities have been damaged by exposure to lead, the damage can't be reversed, experts at the National Institutes of Health say.

So, the emphasis needs to be on preventing exposure to excessive amounts of lead in the first place, and minimizing exposure if damage does exist, in order to prevent further damage.

The experts also recommend that, if your home is old enough to contain excess lead, get it tested, and cleaned out if necessary, by a trained professional. It's not a do-it-yourself kind of job.

Testing Toddlers For Lead Poisoning: Easy, Vital

Toddlers are at especially high risk of getting lead poisoning.

As Saturday Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez explained, doctors call toddlers "mouthers," because they put so many things in their mouths, since that's a primary way they explore their worlds.

But much of what they insert could have lead in or on it, from paint, to toys, and so many other things. And if they lift the paint off the toys and ingest it, or swallow anything else containing lead, they could put themselves in jeopardy.

Lead paint in the home is the leading cause of lead poisoning, Rodriguez stressed, but it's certainly not the only one.

Rodriguez, mother of a two-year-old, Daniella, had her apartment checked for lead hazards, and it came up clean.

But specialists say even when that's the case, small children should still be tested. That involves a simple finger prick, and if that test shows worrisome signs, a full blood test is required. Lead poisoning often has no obvious symptoms, and testing is the only way to know for sure if a child has high lead levels.

That was borne out by a Baltimore mom of two Rodriguez met whose family is facing lead poisoning firsthand.

Just two months ago, Jamia Handy thought her kids were healthy.

Then, their pediatrician tested them for lead poisoning. Four-year-old Chavez tested positive, but he could be treated with vitamins.

It was Jamia's toddler, 20-month-old Jaiah, whose levels were off the charts: Anything over 10 is a problem. Jaiah's level was 82.

"With levels that high," says Dr. Oscar Taube of Baltimore's Sinai Hospital, "critical things can happen. Children can seize, children can go into a coma."

Taube sent Jaiah to the hospital immediately. She had the highest lead level he'd seen in 24 years of practice.

"We really couldn't justify her spending another moment in that house," he says.

"Everything tested positive in the house," Handy told Rodriguez. "The walls had low positives, the windows had high positives, the floors had high positives, the carpet down here was high."

But it was Jaiah's special spot in the front window that experts found had the biggest lead problem. The testers' machine beeped away when she went near it.

"The paint, the window wells, everything, just lead," Handy says.

Jaiah spent 19 days in the hospital, three in intensive care. She had so much lead in her little body that doctors could see lead chips on an x-ray of her stomach. She came home, but her lead level shot back up to 60, so she's been back in the hospital.

Lead In Homes

It's not just in or on your kids' toys or even in the paint on your walls where lead could be lurking. You'd be amazed at some of its hiding spots.

Some 310,000 children are poisoned by lead each year in the United States, mainly in their homes, points out Early Show national correspondent and mom-to-be Tracy Smith.

The Environmental Protection Agency says any house built before 1978 may pose a lead danger, and that includes Smith's Manhattan apartment, an old milk bottling factory built in 1911.

Though it's been renovated and painted, Smith wasn't sure if lead could still pose a problem. For instance, what it there's lead behind the walls?

Ruth Ann Norton, who runs the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, cautioned Smith that she needs to make sure the rehab and cleanup after it were done properly, with no lead dust left behind.

"Lead dust," Norton explained, "is the main pathway for children getting poisoned. It takes the equivalent of three granules of sugar of leaded dust to get on a baby's hand and into their mouth to start a poisoning process."

Smith was most concerned about the room she and her husband are converting to a nursery.

"Pregnant women who are exposed to lead have a higher risk of low birth weight babies, miscarriages and stillbirth," Norton says. "A significantly higher rate."

So Smith brought in lead inspector Eddie Weinstein.

"The first spot that we'd look for lead," he said, "is in walls and in window frames, anywhere that peeling paint might occur." Chipping and peeling lead paint breaks down into toxic dust.

Among other tools, Weinstein used a special X-ray machine to check the inside of the walls for lead content.

The future nursery turned out to be fine.

Tests of the apartment's water came back negative.

But Smith wasn't home-free. Weinstein found a serving platter in her kitchen that was loaded with lead. He said he wouldn't let kids near it. Smith threw it out.

For much more on lead that might be in your home:

The National Lead Information Center has a hotline that can answer most questions about lead or provide a list of lead professionals in your area: 1-800-424-LEAD

The EPA also has information at this location.

For lead safety training courses, click here.

To find a lead contractor to fix your home, click here.

To see a list, updated monthly, of EPA-acrredited labs you can send a dust swab test to, click here.