Statistics
show more than 11 percent of Vigo County children are poisoned
 Hundreds of Vigo County children are at
risk of serious illness every day, and most people don't know
it.
The county has achieved a dubious distinction - it leads the
state in percentage of children with toxic levels of lead in
their systems.
Among Indiana children age 6 or younger who have been tested
for lead poisoning, Vigo County has the highest percentage of
those with toxic levels of that mineral in their blood - more
than double the state average.
In Indiana, 5.1 percent of tested children have dangerous blood-lead
content, according to figures compiled by the Indiana Department
of Health. Vigo County's percentage of poisoned children stands
at 11.2.
Lead, a mineral now most commonly present in the paint of older
homes, can lead to a variety of health problems in children and
adults. In children, the problems can include brain damage and
nervous system disorders, behavioral and learning problems, slowed
growth, hearing problems and headaches.
Lead also can cause problems in adults: reproductive problems
in both men and women, high blood pressure, digestive problems,
nerve disorders, memory and concentration problems, and muscle
and joint pain.
In a scientific measure, toxic levels are considered to be 10
or more micrograms per deciliter.
Robert Teclaw, the state's epidemiologist, warned that the county's
numbers might not accurately reflect the extent of Vigo County's
problem.
"We don't have a systematic screening program throughout
the state," he said. "We try to target children who
are 'at-risk.'"
That category would mean children living in low-income families,
those serviced by Medicaid, living in older housing and minorities.
Teclaw noted that there are many overlaps in those groups.
 Vigo County, according to state statistics, has a
high proportion of children living in low-income families - almost
25 percent. Couple that with numbers that show almost half of
the county's housing stock was built before 1950, and the conditions
are ripe to create a higher number of poisoned kids.
Teclaw added that the problems are by no means confined to those
groups. Anybody living in a home built prior to 1978 stands a
risk of having lead-based paint poisoning their environment.
Lead-based paint for in-home use was nationally banned in 1978.
And lead can be ingested in more ways that the commonly accepted
image of hungry children eating paint chips. Lead can be found
in soil around houses with deteriorating lead-based paint, and
in dust created by indoor paint erosion that can settle in everything
from furniture and rugs to toys.
Children with a diet rich in iron and calcium tend to store the
lead less readily than children with those mineral deficiencies,
said Jeri Taylor, a registered nurse at the Well Child Clinic
operated by the Vigo County Health Department in Hyte Center.
The body lacks the minerals, and stores the lead as a substitute.
Once stored, there is no known cure to get rid of it.
"There is medication they can give to get the lead out,
but how effective it is is still being scrutinized," Taylor
said.
 "We don't want to just use screening
[on high hazard kids], because that's a little too late,"
Teclaw said. But funding and responsibility for making more thorough
testing of children would have to come from the state Legislature.
Currently, no state funding or permission exists, and no legislation
is pending in front of the General Assembly to require it.
Indiana Department of Health provides guidance to local programs,
Teclaw said, and has a new, federally funded lead elimination
plan that is scheduled to begin July 1, but that program will
depend on local programs as a conduit.
Taylor said the county lacks a coordinated program to identify
lead-based paint hazards, and no funding to address abatement
of the paint or treatment of children who have been exposed,
but that may be changing. A group collected from city government,
the Vigo County School Corp., the county Health Department and
the Terre Haute Housing Authority is working toward a grant application
that could bring federal money into Vigo County to support lead
paint abatement, education programs and treatment of poisoned
children.
Children who receive Medicaid services are supposed to be tested,
Taylor said, but the resources to coordinate testing and to follow
up on the results aren't available.
Jeanie Newton from Vigo County Headstart said children entering
that program are required by federal law to have the screening,
but they have encountered incidents where parents resist it.
Some don't see the need if the child doesn't appear to be sick.
"We are No. 1 in the state with the highest percentage of
lead-poisoned kids, and we have no program in place to deal with
it," said Karla West, a school corporation counselor who
works with students in Franklin and Davis Park schools - two
schools with some of the city's oldest homes in their districts.
"I got on board because I've got so many lead-poisoned kids."
West and Taylor are part of the grant-writing group seeking a
portion of an almost $2.3 billion grant being distributed by
the federal Housing and Urban Development.
Once present in the system, Taylor said, the effects of lead
are capricious. Children can appear outwardly normal or can suffer
from any of the symptoms. The learning difficulties typically
are discovered in fourth grade, when teaching shifts from basic
skills to emphasis on more cognitive development.
The key is education and awareness, West said, because once lead
is in the body, it doesn't go away.
"It's the only preventable childhood disease for which there
is no cure," West said. |
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Hundreds
of Vigo County children are at risk of serious illness every
day, and most people don't know it. 
Patricia
Waggoner and James Allison didn't know until it was too late
that their children had been poisoned.
Vigo
county has a huge need for lead poisoning prevention awareness.
If
you live in a house built before 1978, chances are you live around
lead-based paint, a source of lead poisoning. The best thing
to do in that situation is to become more informed.