June 8, 2016
Page 5
Alarm Grows Over Toxins
C ontinued from P age 3
sponding to the growing public
concerns.
“The county has a really in-
teresting role in that we don’t
regulate lead in the water or
radon, and those (toxins) aren’t
in our buildings,” said public
health information oficer Julie
Sullivan-Springhetti. “But the
people in those buildings are our
residents, and Multnomah Coun-
ty cares about health.”
Under the backdrop of a
Change.org petition calling for
Portland Public Schools Super-
intendent Carole Smith’s resig-
nation over the toxicity issues,
and others demanding more ac-
tion from government oficials,
education on the home front can
offer some preventative safety
tips.
“There’s always a little bit of
lead loating around in your liv-
er and your muscles,” says Dr.
Zane Horowitz of the Oregon
Poison Center. “Levels between
0-5 (micrograms/deciliter) aren’t
unusual for kids that live in an
inner city environment.”
Since lead was used in every-
thing from paint to children’s
toys to piping for hundreds of
years, its presence is still preva-
lent in many of Portland’s older
homes and buildings. The prob-
lem, Dr. Horowitz says, lies in
the length of exposure time and
the height of levels in the blood
stream.
According to the health de-
partment brochures, extended
exposure to lead can cause learn-
ing and behavioral problems,
brain damage, speech impair-
ment, stunted growth, liver dam-
age, seizures and coma. Severe
cases can be fatal.
Dr. Horowitz says a bind-
ing agent called Succimer, also
known as Chemet, is a prescrip-
tion for treatment that can bind
metals in the body and help ex-
crete the toxins over a period of
time.
“It does take a while,” says
Dr. Horowitz. “Sometimes it
could take months or as high as
a year depending on how long
they’ve been exposed to it and
the levels in their body.”
Horowitz says blood lead lev-
els need to be or exceed 45 mi-
crograms/deciliter to receive a
Succimer treatment.
The risks for high lead levels
would be lower in school be-
cause a child is in attendance for
limited hours.
“You can ask your child if they
drink a lot of water at school.
If it’s just a sip every now and
then, there’s probably not the
highest risk of them having high
levels in their system,” explains
Dr. Horowitz.
Multnomah County works
with WIC (Women, Infants and
Children program) to provide
free lead blood testing for chil-
dren less than six years of age
and pregnant women.
“We want families to recog-
nize the potential risks of lead
poisoning so they can do due
diligence in keeping their homes
free,” says Mary Kay DiLoreto,
In the last three years, every
lead test that’s been taken in a
doctor’s ofice or in a pop up
clinic was recorded by the state.
We know from those 15,000
tests that 188 were positive for
lead in children under 19, with
about 170 of those cases for
children under age six, Sulli-
van-Springhetti says.
tion Agency.
“There really is no treatment
for removing radon from your
body,” says Horowitz, “and there
are no immediate effects at all,
just the lifelong risk of getting
lung cancer becomes higher.”
People exposed to toxins 8
hours a day for life, for example,
would have higher levels to the
risks of increasing cancer, says
Dr. Horowitz. He said the real
risk for people who garden or
According to the health department
brochures, extended exposure to lead can
cause learning and behavioral problems,
brain damage, speech impairment, stunted
growth, liver damage, seizures and coma.
Severe cases can be fatal.
the program supervisor for WIC
Northeast, which operates a
pop up clinic out of Multnomah
County’s Walnut Park building
at 3929 .NE. Martin Luther King
Jr. Blvd.
About 80 of these clinics are
held every year at various loca-
tions around the county intended
to inform and educate the public
on lead risks and prevention.
Unfortunately, extended ex-
posure to radon gas and airborne
heavy metals isn’t as easy to
identify or counteract.
Of all the carcinogenic toxins
Portlanders have been invol-
untarily exposed to lately, ra-
don is the number one cause of
lung cancer in people who don’t
smoke cigarettes, according to
the U.S. Environmental Protec-
live adjacent to a problem site, is
very minimal when it comes to a
lifelong risk of cancer.
Gov. Kate Brown has sought
to shut down the melting of tox-
ic heavy metals by glass manu-
facturers like Bullseye Glass in
southeast Portland, and Mult-
nomah County has been work-
ing with the Oregon DEQ and
Oregon Health Authority in pin-
pointing risks and solutions.
Taking on these health is-
sues one at a time, the county is
tackling lead irst with a public
outreach to get people tested.
Portland Public Schools will test
every school this summer for
lead.
“We want to go to and work
with the community, so we’re
hoping this is the beginning of
the conversation and that by the
time this horrible experience
with Portland public is over that
we will have a lot of people that
know a lot about lead,” says Sul-
livan-Springhetti.
Multnomah County encour-
ages concerned citizens and par-
ents to get their blood lead levels
tested, as well as the water ix-
tures in their homes.
“We want people to know that
no matter whom you are, no mat-
ter where you live, you have a
right and you have access to the
county coming to help answer
questions about your health.
That’s what’s really important,”
says Sullivan-Springhetti.
For more information on lead
and testing, contact the coun-
ty Leadline at 503-988-4000 or
email leadline@multco.us. A
list of free testing dates and lo-
cations for pregnant women and
children under six can be found
at
https://multco.us/health/
lead-poisoning-prevention/get-
ting-your-child-tested-lead.