Jamestown City Council Gets Update on High Amount of Lead Poisoning Among Children

The Jamestown City Council receives an update on the ongoing challenges of Lead Poisoning in the community during its March 9, 2020 work session.

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown’s old housing stock is continuing to create concerns for both local school and health officials, who say the number of homes that contain lead paint is resulting in a high percentage of local children having lead poisoning.

A group of representatives from both the Chautauqua County Department of Health and Human Services and Jamestown Public Schools appeared Monday night at the Jamestown City Council work session to present the latest lead poisoning numbers in the community.

• VIEW MARCH 9, 2020 LEAD PAINT PRESENTATION [PDF]
• RELATED: LISTEN TO WRFA’s JULY 2019 INTERVIEW ON LEAD POISONING

Officials say Jamestown ranked fifth in the state when it comes to childhood lead poisoning and in Chautauqua County, an estimated one half of all children diagnosed with lead poisoning live in the city of Jamestown.

Chautauqua County Health and Human Services Department lead program coordinator Natalie Whiteman said that 95% of all lead poisoning cases in the city can be attributed to homes that still contain lead-based paint.

“Kids get lead poisoned. It’s not by chewing on the windowsills like some people allude to, but it is from lead paint dust. Every time doors open or close, if there is lead paint on it and there’s a friction surface, you create dust. Every time a window is slid open or closed, if it has lead paint on the edge of it and you create friction, you create dust. That dust then ends up the floor, it ends up on children’s toys, it ends up on children’s hands, and then it ends up in children’s mouths. That’s how children typically get lead poisoning,” Whiteman explained.

Jamestown Public Schools student support services director Chad Bongiovanni was also in attendance and said studies have shown that once a child is exposed to lead, there is usually some type of adverse impact on a child’s mental and physical development.

“Some of the main impacts of childhood lead poisoning is loss of IQ points, aggression, memory problems, impulse control, poor fine-motor skills, trouble paying attention and concentrating, difficulty with planing and organization, poor cognitive flexibility, and other physical health problems,” Bongiovanni said.

According to the presenters,  there are two classrooms’ worth of children in each grade level at Jamestown who’ve experienced lead poisoning.  However, that number could be higher because not every child in the school district is tested for lead poisoning.

Bongiovanni added that because of the impact lead has on students, many of them are placed in special education classes. The average annual cost for a student in special education can approach $25,500, while the annual cost for general education per student is just $10,100. As a result, Bongiovanni said lead poisoning not only has a direct impact on the child’s health and education, but also on the cost for the school district.

Lead based paint was outlawed in the late 1970s, but more than 40 years later a significant number of homes in the city still contain the lead residue.

The group added that lead poisoning is 100% preventable and steps are being taking to try and reduce the number of homes in the city that can expose a child to lead, including a reporting and monitoring system set up by the county health department. The school district is also adding lead poisoning to its health curriculum, while also educating families about lead poisoning and the need for screening.

In the meantime, they said they will also be working with the city to identify other ways city government can get involved to also help in the mitigation effort.