PROVIDENCE -- Lead poisoning occurs all over the state and lead paint remains the top environmental health problem affecting Rhode Island's children, Dr. Peter Simon, head of the state Health Department's program to combat childhood lead poisoning, testified yesterday.
"Lead poisoning is an epidemic because we really shouldn't at this stage in our development as a community see these levels," Simon said.
He took the stand to open the third week in the state's trial against eight national corporations that two generations ago made the lead paint that experts say is now poisoning thousands of small children. The state is trying to prove the paints amount to a public nuisance.
During the first two weeks, the state presented a battery of nationally recognized pediatricians and researchers who described how lead paint poisons and the various neurological symptoms that results.
Simon's testimony centered on what's been going on in Rhode Island. He said 35,227 children have suffered lead poisoning since 1993, when a statewide screening program was established to test young children's blood. The state now screens 77 percent of Rhode Island children by the time they reach 18 months of age.
"We're number one doing screening," Simon said. "No one else comes close to screening so much of their child populations.
Simon said the screening program works because "our community has grasped that this is a significant health problem and this is something they can do to protect their kids."
State and federal regulations describe lead poisoning as 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. But Simon said studies show lower levels cause damage to children.
"We know from science there are problems for children at lower levels," he said. "Children are more likely to fail at school, to be on disability or to get incarcerated if they have lead in their blood between 0 and 10 [micrograms]."
On cross-examination by paint company lawyer John Tarantino, Simon acknowledged the letters that the Health Department sends to parents whose children have blood lead levels between 10 and 20 micrograms do not warn about irreversible brain damage.
"We've found that if we scare people, we have trouble educating them," Simon said. Parents have told the department, he said, that they want to get details from their physicians, not from a letter from the state.
Under questioning from Tarantino, Simon also acknowledged that he had been mistaken when he testified that the Health Department doesn't do anything for the thousands of children whose blood lead levels are below 20. The department does work to educate parents of those children, he said.
Simon also acknowledged that the Health Department's Web site describes blood lead levels below 10 as "typical or acceptable."
The Web site also says poisoning begins at 15 micrograms -- not 10. Simon said that is to account for any errors in measurements and to avoid unnecessarily scaring people.
Simon also acknowledged that the Web site advises Rhode Islanders that, "Homes with intact paint and no friction surfaces containing lead paint are probably lead safe," and that 270,000 of the 300,000 homes in Rhode Island treated with lead paint "can be made lead safe with good maintenance practices."
Today at noon, several advocacy groups and politicians plan to rally against the paint industry in front of the courthouse in Memorial Park on South Main Street. They will display children's shoes in an effort to symbolize the number of children lead poisoned in Providence.
Without mentioning the rally, Superior Court Judge Michael A. Silverstein announced at the end of court yesterday that he was going to try an experiment today to save the jurors' time. The court will buy lunch for the jurors and serve it in the jury room, he said.
The experiment might last just a day, he said.
Read previous coverage of the trial, and find about more about lead-paint hazards in Rhode Island and how to deal with them at:
http://projo.com/extra/lead/
