The Health Hazards of Lead. . - Book Corners - Getting the Lead Out: The Complete Resource for Preventing and Coping with Lead Poisoning - book review

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  April, 2002  by Katherine Duff

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Getting the Lead Out: The Complete Resource for Preventing and Coping with Lead Poisoning

by Irene Kessel and John T. O'Connor

Perseus Publishing, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142

Softcover, 270 pp., 2001, $18.00

Lead, as a cause of illness, has been known for at least 5,000 years. This may be the reason our understanding of it suffers from a bad case of inaccurate conventional wisdom and myths that are shared by the general public and doctors alike. As I learned in Getting the Lead Out by Irene Kessel and John T. O'Connor, lead poisoning affects people in all geographic areas, any economic group and any age. But for children, the damage is more severe and can cause lifelong problems.

Authors Kessel and O'Connor have written a resource guide that should help parents deal with just about any aspect of lead poisoning, starting with prevention. There are tips for getting a child tested and help with interpreting the results. They discuss the treatments available for the child suffering lead poisoning and tips for dealing with health departments and other agencies that may become involved.

As an environmental toxin, lead has some unique qualities. Being an element, once lead has been introduced into the environment it is there forever. Most are familiar with lead in paint and car exhaust, but when we learn that lead was a component of some pesticides prior to the 1988, and can still be found in ceramic ware, sealants of cans and ethnic cosmetics, the need for vigilance becomes apparent: And even though lead in particular products has been banned recently, the lead previously released is still in the environment -- especially the soil.

For preventive measures and treatment of lead poisoning this book describes succinctly, the critical importance of proper nutrition. For example, lead is similar in structure to calcium. A diet deficient in calcium forces the body to mobilize lead just as if it were calcium, where it travels in the blood to the organs and finally to the bones. When a person is deficient in iron, they will absorb more lead. Vitamin C will aid in iron absorption and help remove lead from the body.

The health hazards of lead exposure are well recognized by public health and other government agencies. They have attempted in various ways to address the issue, resulting in rules and programs that may vary from state to state. Some may or may not mandate testing of children by a certain age, blood levels of lead confirming poisoning will vary by state and placing children at risk of lead poisoning could bring enforcement in certain locales. The authors provide plenty of resources that should assist the individual trying to make the most fruitful contacts. They even advise the reader on which agencies to avoid.

I do have a complaint with this book and that is in the chapter titled "The Psychosocial Impacts of Lead Poisoning." In what is probably an attempt to ease the conscience of a parent suffering guilt, the authors advise that there is little or nothing one can do to avoid the many other environmental exposures in our world. They separate lead from other exposures by virtue of it being preventable and the others are not, but that is an incorrect notion. The more we learn about all environmental exposures, the more likely we are to practice prevention wherever possible. What a shame it would be to work so hard to prevent the neurological deficits caused by lead only to have a child overexposed to the numerous other neurotoxins in the environment, such as pesticides.

We could all use a better understanding of the role of lead on our health and the sources of lead in the environment. Knowing this will affect choices in real estate, building materials and how we conduct home projects. And for those trying to cope with lead poisoning, this well organized resource book should be a great help.

COPYRIGHT 2002 The Townsend Letter Group
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group