COMMITTEE TO STUDY STATE LEAD PAINT LAW

A Cape Girardeau advisory committee wants city officials to follow the state's lead before it enacts a law to deal with lead levels in paint and soil.

The Cape Girardeau Minimum Property Standards Review Committee on Tuesday decided to review data from state and county public health officials before making any recommendation on a lead paint ordinance.

The state likely will hand down a mandate soon, said Charlotte Craig, administrator for the Cape Girardeau County Health Department.

Until then, the county health department is dealing with individual cases of blood poisoning from lead with a questionnaire and public education efforts.

"There is no state mandate on what must be done to the house or facility where the paint or lead exists," Craig said.

She asked the committee to hold off on a recommendation to the city council until the state acts to abate elevated lead cases.

"I think I can already say with confidence that this group is way ahead of other cities this size in terms of addressing this issue," Craig added.

The county has had 76 blood screenings of children suspected to have elevated lead in their blood in Cape County. Of those, 17 percent were deemed high enough to refer to the state. "That's about the percentage St. Louis has been reporting," said Craig.

St. Louis has been under its own mandate for abatement of lead poisoning for 23 years.

Since last June, there have been 13 cases of children in Cape Girardeau with 15 micrograms of lead in their blood. The worst case was of a child who had 30 micrograms of lead in its blood.

Symptoms of blood poisoning in a child with 15 micrograms or more of lead in his blood include headaches, weight loss, irritability, lack of concentration and sluggishness. Medical treatment usually isn't necessary until the level reaches 44 or 45 micrograms in the bloodstream.

"Once lead gets into a child's bloodstream, it does not move for a while, especially if that individual has a poor diet," said Howard Courtney, the environmental sanitarian for the Cape Girardeau County Health Center.

"Lead has a sweet taste," he added. "If a child is exposed to flakes of lead paint, it will keep going back to that and the problem just gets worse."

But committee members have said they don't want a lead paint law to be so intrusive that it violates the rights of healthy citizens who might have high lead levels.

"We may want to refine this to expose deteriorating conditions in homes with lead paint," said Cape Mayor Al Spradling III.

In other business Tuesday, the committee debated who is responsible for rental property that is damaged or littered with debris.

Arguments were waged for stricter laws to force landlords to keep a closer watch on the tenant. Others said a city property maintenance code should reflect a tougher stance against tenants who fail to live up to their lease agreement with the landlord.

Said Dorothy Hardy, a member of the committee and a landlord, "This should be about rewarding the good landlords and going after the bad tenants."

City Councilman Tom Neumeyer cited a case where neighbors finally took action by cleaning up the grounds of a fraternity house after the landlord and tenants refused to accept responsibility.

"I think if you impose some penalty on the tenant, like a fine or a few days in jail, he or she might think twice about it," said Spradling.