Experts: No level of lead exposure is safe
Erie Water Works is on schedule to replace all lead pipe connections
Konzel construction crews are replacing lead pipes with brass and copper fittings for all Erie Water Works customers. EPA Deputy Commissioner for Water Bruno Pigott visited Erie on July 24, 2024, to view a pipe replacement demonstration.
You’ll be surprised how often you’re exposed to lead.
In the United States, lead has been recognized as a toxic substance for over a century and is regulated accordingly.
Yet it’s still commonly found in the paint of homes built before 1978 and in pipes that carry tap water. And a recent study of 14 different brands of tampons found that tampons contain lead and other toxic metals – even organic ones.
Just this month, health officials in Cincinnati announced that lead had been found in the tap water at the Bobbie Sterne Health Center. One faucet contained water that contained eight times the federal lead limit.
The health consequences of lead exposure can be serious. Amit Bhattacharya, a professor and scientist at the University of Cincinnati who has been studying lead exposure in the same group of children since the late 1970s, knows this only too well.
“Their health will be affected in the long term,” he said of the children who were first recruited in the womb. “Every part of their body is seriously affected.”
The children are now adults, but still suffer from the effects of their mothers’ lead poisoning.
Lead exposure in children can cause effects ranging from permanent brain damage to behavioral problems.
Here’s what else Bhattacharya had to say about lead contamination — in tampons, tap water and more.
Scientist warns of lead contamination of the skin
The city’s report on lead found at the Bobbie Sterne Health Center says lead poisoning, a condition that can lead to convulsions and death, does not result from washing hands with lead-contaminated water.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, skin exposure is not a significant route of lead exposure for the general population.
However, Bhattacharya warns people about low levels of lead in all forms, even if they don’t drink lead.
“Over the years, many researchers have shown that you should not be exposed to even the smallest amount of lead,” he said. “Lead is not harmless at all.”
Bhattacharya is also concerned about lead contamination from consumer products such as tampons. He believes this may have occurred through the use of contaminated water in the manufacture of the tampons.
Lead can enter the bloodstream in many ways, one of which, according to Bhattacharya, is contact with the skin.
“Lead can be absorbed in all ways, through the skin and through the air,” he said, referring to research showing that inhaling leaded gasoline fumes is toxic to millions of Americans.
“When it touches your skin, it penetrates through the skin into your bloodstream.”
And once lead enters your bloodstream, it can travel to organs in the rest of your body, including your brain.
This can cause the blood-brain barrier – a network of tissue and vessels that prevents harmful substances from entering your brain – to become compromised, with catastrophic consequences.
“In people exposed to lead, the ability to stand and walk safely is completely lost,” said Bhattacharya, who observed the effects of extreme lead poisoning in his study.
“You can’t stand upright.”
If you are concerned about lead poisoning, have a blood test done
Children exposed to lead are particularly vulnerable to permanent brain damage, slowed development, learning delays and behavioral problems.
For this reason, Ohio law requires all health care providers to perform a blood lead test on children ages 1 and 2.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, approximately 160,000 children under the age of 6 are tested for lead poisoning in Ohio each year. About 4,800 of them, or 3%, are found to have blood lead levels of at least five micrograms per deciliter.
“When a child is born, care is always taken to ensure that there is no lead in the blood,” said Bhattacharya, recalling how his own son was tested for lead as an infant.
He recommends that anyone concerned about their lead exposure take a blood lead test, offered by the Cincinnati Health Department.
“Get evaluated by a clinical expert who is familiar with lead poisoning and get tested for it,” Bhattacharya said. Regular testing is best, he says, because lead exposure can change over time.
Because you may not experience symptoms of lead poisoning, the CDC says blood tests are the best way to determine your lead levels and assess potential damage.
