The former state health director testifies that she believed the state had almost reached its goal in reducing lead poisoning of children.

01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, November 29, 2005

BY BRANDIE JEFFERSON
Journal Environment Writer

PROVIDENCE -- In 2004, the state Health Department's goal was to reduce the rate of childhood lead poisoning to less than 5 percent in each community, without reducing the amount of affordable housing, according to state documents.

Dr. Patricia Nolan, former state health director and a witness for the state in its trial against companies that manufactured lead-based paint, said yesterday that although she didn't have statistics about affordable housing, she did think that the state had almost reached its goal in reducing poisoning.

In the Health Department's childhood lead-poisoning reports for 2003 and 2004, the statewide incidence of childhood lead poisoning was 3.7 percent. According to the department's Web site, in 2003, three cities and towns still had poisoning rates greater than 5 percent; in 2004, there were five communities.

John Tarantino, a lawyer for defendant Atlantic Richfield, questioned Nolan yesterday about the number of children reported as being lead-poisoned in Health Department publications.

There are two blood tests used to determine whether a child has been exposed to a lead hazard. The first, a capillary or finger-stick test, is used only as a screening method; a venous test, in which blood is drawn from the vein, is required to make a medical diagnosis of lead poisoning, Nolan testified.

Tarantino presented the jury with Health Department publications that cited both capillary and venous tests as the sources of data.

"So what that means is if a child had a finger-stick false positive of 15 micrograms per deciliter," Tarantino asked Nolan, but has a venous test showing that the child was not lead-poisoned, "the Health Department numbers in 2004 still counted that child as being lead-poisoned?"

"I think so," Nolan replied. "I'm not positive."

Tarantino also asked Nolan about the individual steps the Health Department has recommended to parents to reduce the likelihood of their children getting lead poisoning.

"Eating the right foods," Tarantino read from the Health Department's Web site. "If you see chipped or peeling paint, block it with furniture or cover it with duct tape. . . . Even if you don't see dust, you should clean once a month, just to be safe."

With a few qualifications, Nolan said that most of the recommendations were reasonable and should be manageable for most parents.

Tarantino asked her whether she believed, "to a reasonable degree of professional certainty," that blood lead levels below 10 micrograms per deciliter, the level the state Health Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider safe, can cause irreversible and irreparable damage to a child.

"The damage it does can't be reversed," Nolan replied.

Why then, Tarantino asked, does the Health Department Web site say that a level of 10 is acceptable?

"The term 'acceptable' is not one that I use," Nolan replied, "but 10 is the standard that we have set. . . . The effort is to lower the rates."

Nolan's cross-examination is scheduled to continue today.

Brandie Jefferson has a fellowship with the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting. She can be reached at bjeffers@projo.com.