After moving into an older home on Northeast Prescott Street last year, Vanessa Manning noticed her youngest child, LeeAnthony, acting violent and crazy. "All of a sudden he was out of control," says Manning, a single mom with eight kids. "I could tell something was wrong. He's super bad. Look at this, he tore a hole in his new pants today at the mall. He bites other kids. He doesn't sleep, and when he does, he cries." When Manning told Dr. Yuen Chan at the Multnomah County Northeast Clinic about her son's strange behavioral change, the pediatrician immediately thought of lead. Sure enough, LeeAnthony had a blood lead level of 43 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (µg/dl). Although children with only mildly elevated blood lead levels rarely show symptoms, those with higher levels may exhibit anemia, high blood pressure, headaches, motor coordination problems and behavioral changes. At levels higher than 70 µg/dl, children can go into convulsions, slip into comas or even die. The chelation worked; LeeAnthony's blood lead level soon dropped to 20 µg/dl. The next step was to get the lead out of Manning's home. Manning had more luck with that than Theresa Penn. Because Manning is on welfare and lives in a federally subsidized home, federal law requires her landlord to address lead hazards. (Oregon law requires only that landlords notify tenants of known lead hazards.) The landlord repainted the house and removed some lead-coated mini-blinds Manning had purchased at Wal-Mart. Still, Manning worries. Twins--LeeMarcus and LeeMarquez--were born after LeeAnthony. (All her boys are Lees, and her girls are Las, as in Laticia.) Although the babies tested fine for lead a few months ago, Manning says the new paint is now peeling, exposing the old lead-tainted paint. "These kids are still in contact with lead," Manning concludes. Moving is not an option. She tried. No landlords would rent a house to a single African-American mom with eight kids, she says. Meanwhile, Manning says, it's a daily battle to take care of three wild little ones. "These last three will probably kill me," she says. --EM |
