Officials cite dramatic drop in lead exposure after cleanup

JOPLIN, Mo. -- After a decade-long lead cleanup that included replacing soil in more than 2,400 residential yards, health officials say children in the southwest corner of Missouri are healthier for it.

A survey of lead levels in the blood of Jasper County children shows dramatic improvement. About 2 percent of children tested recently had blood levels above the federal standard, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said Thursday.

In 1991, a comparable study found about 14 percent of children with elevated lead levels.

That earlier study followed the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to put the area on the Superfund national priority list. The cleanup followed decades of mining and smelting activity in the tri-state region, once the lead mining capital of the world.

Superfund status, reserved for public health emergencies, allowed access to federal money that paid for the cleanup.

"We would deem this as a success," said Brian Quinn, a spokesman for the state health department. "The best success was that blood levels went down almost to background levels."

The Jasper County cleanup also included a program of increased education about the dangers of lead exposure and how to avoid it. The health study concluded that other areas facing similar contamination problems should use a "multimedia" approach -- combining education with soil cleanup and a recognition of other dangerous lead sources, especially lead-based paint.

Quinn noted that lead-based paint is still present on many of the homes where yards were replaced.

"We want the public to know that they are not risk-free because of this success," he said.

Exposure to lead is known to hamper brain development in children, and has been linked to other health problems in people of all ages.

The results in Jasper County will be noted by other parts of Missouri -- the nation's top lead-producer -- struggling with lead contamination.

In Herculaneum, about 25 miles south of St. Louis, the Doe Run Co. has spent millions of dollars under EPA orders to clean up yards and streets in the town, home of the nation's largest lead smelter. Soil and blood tests have found lead levels far above normal.

Unlike Jasper County, no random sampling of blood levels has been done in Herculaneum. But state health officials said Thursday that they have done enough blood testing on a voluntary basis to gauge the seriousness of exposure there.