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Show Test reveals high lead level in Prospector child by Christopher Smart Information obtained Tuesday by the Record indicates that one Prospector Square child has relatively relative-ly high blood-lead levels. A May 25 press release from the Utah State Department of Health said no high levels were revealed by recent testing. The first of two studies was launched in April to determine if Prospector Square children between the ages of five and 12 were being exposed to heavy metals from mine tailings deposited in the area. A November soil survey by the Utah State Geological survey showed abnormally high levels of arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead in Prospector Square. According to Dr. Ed Stafford of the Rocky Mountain Health Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, who conducted the study in conjunction with the State Health Department, an unidentified young female Prospector Square resident tested in April and again in May had a blood-lead level of 29 micrograms for every 100 c.c. of blood. Her blood-lead rating falls just short of the "action level" of 30 micrograms set by the National Center for Disease Control. Action level is the point at which an environmental hazard should be reduced or eliminated. According to the State Health Department release in May, the lowest level found in the 38 Prospector Square children studied was 5 micrograms. The highest was 16. At that time, Dr. Dennis Perrotta, coordinator of the Epidemiological Studies program for the State Health Department, said officials did not expect to find any abnormally high blood-lead levels because the tailings tail-ings on which Prospector Square is built have been covered by snow all winter. Perrotta told the Record Tuesday that the girl's blood-lead level was not released with the rest of the results because it vvrs so far "out of whack" compared with the other data that health officials did not believe it to be accurate. The young girl's blood was again tested and the original results were confirmed, Perrotta said. The results from the second test were known June 11. The new information was not released, Perrotta said, because it was not thought to be significant. "If there was a trend in Prospector Square, we would expect to see more levels in this range." Perrotta said that he would be unable to conclude that Prospector Squar is an "unsafe place" because of one high reading. Perrotta said blood-lead levels in the first survey will act as "baseline" information for the second study to be conducted , in September. That one child's blood-lead blood-lead level is high in the spring means there is a significant difference between her immediate environment and that of the other children tested. According to Stafford, the State Health Department did not release the additional information because of concerns that Prospector Square residents " "have suffered enough emotional trauma." "The main concern of this office was that the family of the child had all the information," Stafford said. He added that the girl's physician had been notified and had given her a clean bill of health. Lead toxicity occurs at about 55 to 60 micrograms per 100 c.c. of blood, according to health officials. The dust from the child's house and yard are now being analyzed, Stafford said, to determine how and where she is coming into contact with the lead. Excluding the girl's test results, the average blood-level in Prospector Square is 10 micrograms, exactly the national average. |