Staff writer
Academy panel holds final open hearings before writing report
COEUR d'ALENE -- The national cleanup standards for lead may not be clean enough, a lead health expert said Tuesday.
Bruce Lanphear, director of the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center, addressed the National Academy of Sciences Coeur d'Alene Basin review committee Thursday in Coeur d'Alene.
The national goal for lead exposure, set by the Centers for Disease Control, is to have 95 percent of all children with blood lead levels below 10 micrograms per deciliter.
But Lanphear said some studies show that the presence of lead contributes to a greater decline in IQ levels between 5 and 10 micrograms per deciliter than it does between 10 and 20 deciliters.
"There is no discernible threshold for adverse effects of lead," he told the committee. "About 90 percent of the kids who may be harmed by lead never exceed the CDC action level."
The 19-member committee is examining the science and methods used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for cleaning up mining contamination at the Bunker Hill Superfund site and throughout the Coeur d'Alene Basin.
Blood-lead levels in Kellogg children are down significantly from the 1970s, when it was discovered that children were exposed to high amounts of lead from unfiltered emissions from the Bunker Hill smelter.
Exposure can cause developmental and mental problems, especially among young children.
Now, the community is close to meeting the national blood lead goal within the original Bunker Hill Superfund site surrounding Kellogg.
In a program to reduce exposure to lead, soil was removed from hundreds of contaminated yards.
Lanphear said soil abatement is most effective in households with children 1 to 3 years old, the age at which they are most at risk.
He said more must be done to prevent child exposure to lead rather than cleanup measures after they are exposed.
Ron Roizen, a Wallace resident and skeptic of the EPA's science, was among the audience of about 60 attending scientific presentations throughout the day.
"The CDC is not going to lower the threshold for lead," he said. "That has already been decided."
Roizen said Lanphear's program may not have been helpful to the NAS committee.
"In his presentation, he never said Coeur d'Alene and Coeur d'Alene Basin," he said. "There was nothing specifically about us. We're in the pack with the rest of the nation. I don't think it's worth spending $90 million in the Coeur d'Alene Basin when there are places like Boston and Rochester, N.Y., where there is more lead."
The committee also heard presentations on management of Lake Coeur d'Alene. The EPA cleanup plan calls for Idaho and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to work out a plan to address the lake and avoid Superfund action.
Lake Coeur d'Alene, the heart and soul of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, has been turned into the largest tailings repository over the last 100 years of mining, said Phil Cernera, restoration coordinator for the tribe. The lake bed holds millions of tons of sediment contaminated with heavy metals.
"This lake is a living body," Cernera said. "It was never set up to contain metals-contaminated sediment."
He said the plan must be enforceable and fully funded to work.
Alfred Nomee, natural resource director for the tribe, was born and raised on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation.
"We have an oral tradition you can't find in your documents and books," he told the scientists. "Our culture is undeniably damaged to the extent that my grandchildren are in dire straits now."
He asked the committee to scrutinize its science before accepting it.
"Science inevitably can be manipulated to say what you want to hear," he said. "Read the faces of individuals and listen to their hearts and dialogue before making a decision."
The NAS committee will have a closed session today, the last day of its final visit to the Coeur d'Alene Basin.
Chairman David Tollerud, a physician and professor at the University of Louisville, said Thursday that no decisions or recommendations have been formulated.
He said the committee will meet at least twice more before submitting a report which will undergo peer review.
Mike McLean can be reached at 664-8176, ext. 2011, or by e-mail at mmclean@cdapress.com.
