As initially reported by Reuters\non August 16, 2018, undisclosed military and state health records, as well as\ntesting initiated by Reuters for lead in soldiers\u2019 homes, revealed serious\nissues at some of America\u2019s largest military bases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal law defines lead-based\npaint as containing 0.5 percent or more lead by weight. Sales of this type of\npaint have been banned since 1978. Unfortunately, many older homes are still coated\nin lead paint, which becomes dangerous when it peels, chips or turns to dust \u2013 making\nit easy for kids to swallow or breathe in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters tested five homes at Fort\nBenning in Georgia, using a methodology designed with a Columbia University\ngeochemist. All five homes showed they had hazardous levels of deteriorating\nlead paint, within easy reach of children. One case exceeded the federal\nthreshold by a factor of 58.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters offered lead testing to\nmilitary families at several bases, the highest result came from Fort Knox in\nKentucky. A peeling paint sample from a covered porch, where small kids play, contained\n50 percent lead by weight, which is 100 times the federal hazard level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Testing turned up problems in other\nparts of the country as well. At West Point in New York, paint chips falling\nfrom a family\u2019s front door contained lead at 19 times the federal threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army data gathered from other\nclinics showed at least 77 more high blood-lead tests for children at Fort Polk\nin Louisiana, Fort Riley in Kansas, and Fort Hood and Fort Bliss in Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paint hazards were also found in\nhousing at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, a base where the military\nrecently found water taps with high lead levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From 2011 to 2016, Brooke Army\nMedical Center in Texas, which processes blood tests from many bases nationwide,\nregistered more than 1,050 small children who tested above the CDC\u2019s elevated\nthreshold, the center\u2019s records show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015, the Defense Department\u2019s\nInspector General found that a Clark and Michaels partnership had failed to\ncorrect lead paint hazards in homes at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. The Army\npledged to address the issue with contractors, IG records show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deteriorating paint from these\nhouses \u2013 in Georgia, Kentucky, New York, Texas, and Virginia \u2013 had \u201cvery high\u201d\nor \u201cextremely high\u201d lead content that puts children at immediate risk, said\nAlexander van Geen, a research professor of geochemistry who oversaw the lab\nanalysis at Columbia\u2019s Lamont Earth Observatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2016, Reuters has\ninvestigated childhood lead poisoning across the United States, creating a\nfirst-ever nationwide map pinpointing exposure hot spots down to the zip code\nand Census Tract level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters estimates these units\nhouse 700,000 Americans, including around 100,000 children ages 0-5, based on\nthe number of homes (206,000), occupancy rate (93 percent), and a study of\nmilitary family demographics. David R. Segal, the paper co-author and a professor\nemeritus at the University of Maryland, reviewed Reuters\u2019 calculations and\ndeemed them reasonable estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These homes put military kids at\nrisk. Reuters also obtained medical data from the Army showing that at least 31\nsmall children had tested high for lead at a Fort Benning, GA hospital over a\nrecent six-year period. All tested above the U.S. Centers for Disease Control\nand Prevention\u2019s threshold for elevated lead levels \u2013 5 micrograms per\ndeciliter of blood. Any child who tests high warrants a public health response,\nthe CDC says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A $10 finger-prick test can spot\na child exposed to lead, yet millions of U.S. children are never screened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n