According to the Environmental Protection Agency, about one in six children in America have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood. You cannot see, taste or smell lead.

Until the discovery of its disastrous effects on health, lead was used in gasoline, pipes, paint and other common products. In 1978, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the manufacture and use of lead-based paint in residential housing. Unfortunately, the ban did not require removal of lead-based paint from surfaces previously coated with this dangerous neurotoxin.

This means that dangerous lead paint remains in the millions of housing units that were painted with it before 1978. Lead is a problem until it is removed because it does not break down naturally. Since lead does not break down naturally, it can be present in your home's dust, paint or soil, or in your drinking water or your food until it is removed.

Today about 3 million tons of leaded paint remain in approximately 57 million occupied private housing units built prior to 1980. This represents approximately 74 percent of all such housing. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has stated that corrective actions for these homes have been a complete failure.

Children easily get lead poisoning "just by being kids". By crawling on the floor or wiping hands on contaminated walls or windowsills, children can become victims. The long-term affects of lead poisoning in children can be very severe.

Children can suffer learning disabilities, decreased growth, hyperactivity, impaired hearing and even brain damage. As in many other types of poisoning, the earlier that treatment is sought, the greater the possibility of reducing damage. Lead can pass through a pregnant woman's body to her baby, so it is very important to avoid lead exposure if you are pregnant.

Children younger than four years of age are at the greatest risk for lead poisoning and its harmful effects. Infants in this age group have a tremendous amount of hand-to-mouth activity, from playing on the floor to crawling and walking while holding onto walls and windowsills and then putting their hands in their mouths.

When there is chipping and peeling lead paint in a child's home, the tiny chips and leaded dust get on their hands and into their mouths and the poisoning process begins. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), lead paint is the predominant cause of childhood lead poisoning in the United States. No matter what the lead paint industry, landlords and their insurance companies say, it is not your fault.

Chipping and peeling paint is the most common and dangerous source of lead for preschool children. Lead from painted surfaces can enter a child's body completely undetected. This has been proven in scientific studies and in everyday living, when parents, doctors and health agencies have investigated the sources of lead a child had access to and how they become lead poisoned.

Leaded paint naturally erodes to create a chalky dust and begins to chip and flake away from painted surfaces. The deteriorated leaded paint becomes part of the house dust and is inhaled by young children. The simple act of a child breathing in a leaded environment can begin the poisoning process. It is the reason why property owners and those responsible for property management and maintenance have a legal responsibility to keep their property free of chipping and peeling paint.

In addition to paint, other lead sources in the home can endanger young children. These include: the home's water supply, soil, ceramic cookware, older cribs and toys.

Lead poisoning has been termed the "stealth disease" because of the way it occurs and the devastating neurological damage it causes in children at doses that do not cause outward physical signs of poisoning. Poisoning occurs when children eat tiny paint chips or inhale harmful leaded dust.

Chalking lead paint creates dust that settles on toys and other objects. The dust is ingested by the young child in normal hand-to-mouth activity. Leaded house dust that is inhaled even in the smallest amounts is just as lethal as that which is ingested. One paint chip the size of a thumbnail, ingested by a young child, can cause permanent brain damage.

Dr. John Rosen, a pediatrician responsible for treating lead poisoned children at Montefiore Medical Center in New York states: "Lead at remarkably low concentrations has the unique capability of robbing kids of such skills as reading, writing, concentration and abstract thinking. The set of things that are required for academic success and employment success can be lost forever, and all of that comes at a remarkable societal cost."

Because there are no initial symptoms from lead poisoning, blood lead levels are used to identify children with dangerous amounts of lead. In October, 1991, concluding a lengthy study, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) redefined toxicity as blood lead levels at or above 10 micrograms per deciliter, (ug/dL), the level at which some adverse health effects have been observed. No lowest threshold has been identified for the harmful effects of lead, although some studies have suggested harmful effects at levels even lower than 10 ug/dL.

Many experts believe that when a child's blood lead level exceeds 10 ug/dL, there is a high probability of permanent neurological damage. Even at these relatively low blood levels, decreased intelligence, short-term memory loss, reading under-achievement, impairment of visual-motor function, loss of auditory memory, poor perceptual integration, poor classroom behavior and impaired reaction time occur in children.

Virtually every part of the body is affected by lead. Lead has no biological value and competes with metals that are essential to the body, such as zinc, iron and calcium. Lead interferes with bone formation by blocking absorption of calcium. This affects memory storage and the differentiation of cells in the nervous system.

Lead's effect on the brain results in less ability to store information and draw upon past information and less ability to inhibit responses to environmental stimuli. Lead also attacks the peripheral nervous system, which controls the muscles and organs outside the brain. It causes a decrease in muscle strength and at high doses wrist-drop and foot-drop.

Lead accumulates in the kidneys, causing kidney disease, which has far-reaching endocrinological effects. There is a major impact on the enzymatic functions of the liver and on the immune system function of the spleen. It causes anemia by interfering with the synthesis of hemoglobin. Lead affects the reproductive functions of both men and women by interference with enzymes that process testosterone and other androgens. Lead is stored in the bone matrix and can be passed on to an unborn child by a pregnant mother.

Lead's effect on the brain results in less ability to store information and draw upon past information and less ability to inhibit responses to environmental stimuli. Lead also attacks the peripheral nervous system, which controls the muscles and organs outside the brain, causes decrease in muscle strength and at high doses, the syndromes of the wrist-drop and the foot-drop.

Lead accumulates in the kidneys, causing kidney disease and having far-reaching endocrinologic effects. There is a major impact on the enzymatic functions of the liver and on the immune system function of the spleen. It results in anemia by interfering with the synthesis of hemoglobin. Lead affects the reproductive functions of both men and women by interference with enzymes that process testosterone and other androgens.

The treatment for childhood lead poisoning, known as chelation, historically often involved a painful hospital procedure of injections that causes lead to be excreted in the urine. Recently oral chelation drugs have been developed which can be administered without hospitalization.

Chelation procedures do not reverse damage already done to the body and it is thought that lead deposited in the brain tissue is not removed by this procedure. Further treatment requires careful clinical and laboratory surveillance of the child to ensure that there is not continued exposure.

Just as important in treatment of lead poisoning is removal of the source of the lead. The removal process can be an extreme danger in itself if the child is on the premises before removal of all traces of lead is accomplished. The increased paint chips and dust in the air and on the surface of floors, rugs, furnishings, and other belongings during removal can result in re-exposure and raise a child's blood lead levels above pre-chelation levels.

Some of the ways you can protect your children from the risks of lead poisoning in your home are:

1. Have your landlord or superintendent keep all painted surfaces in good condition;
2. Keep infants and toddlers away from window sills, window frames, door frames and baseboards which, in housing built before 1978, are often coated with lead paint;
3. Never dry scrape or burn old paint off of areas in your home. This can release lead dust and tiny lead particles that can stay in the air, in the carpet and in your home for months;
4. Allow the water to run for at least 60 seconds before drinking it or using it for a child's formula or food. This will provide added time to "flush the lead" which may be leeching into your home's water; and
5. Have your children tested for lead poisoning with your pediatrician every six months from the time they are six months old until they reach six years of age. It's a quick and simple blood test and it is worth it.