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Health official assures public that lead poisoning risk is low
Children in four Southern California zip codes had elevated levels of lead.
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Chloe Wright/flickr Creative Commons
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A Los Angeles public health official is downplaying the risk of lead poisoning faced by local children.
"Public Health [Department] wants to assure families that in Los Angeles County there's a lot fewer areas that were high risk," said Maurice Pantoja, an Environmental Health Manager with the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
His comments came in response to an investigation by the Reuters news agency.
Using data from 2012, Reuters reported that children in four Southern California ZIP codes had elevated levels of lead. A sampling of children who had been blood-tested for lead surpassed the 5 percent threshold that is cause for concern.
The ZIP codes were 90037, 90011, 90015 — three adjacent areas from South Los Angeles to southern portions of Downtown and Westlake. Rosemead's 91770 also reached levels above 5 percent.
The county average was roughly 2 percent, in line with the state average.
Pantoja also noted that "there is no established safe level of blood lead exposure," and that the "primary determinants for action" by public health officials are elevated levels of lead in soil and peeling lead paint.
"Public Health doesn’t wait for blood lead levels to rise," he said, adding that the agency "acts on the basis of potential exposure."
The Reuters report showed that in some areas of the state, like Fresno, 10 percent of children tested had elevated levels of lead.
Officials said that families who live in homes built before 1978 should talk to their doctors about getting their children tested for lead exposure. Paint was lead-based until 1978.
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