Lead paint discovered in a homeless shelter could endanger babies and toddlers who stayed there, health advocates say.
City officials revealed only last week that the now-closed YWCA women and children?s homeless shelter at 128 West Franklin St. had an “emergency” lead cleanupin September.
The city Health Department ordered the cleanup after the YMCA found chipping and peeling paint in areas used by homeless children.
The facility, which housed 70 women and children daily, has closed because of a lack of funding.
Terry Harris, head of the Cleanup Coalition, a group that advocates cleaning hazardous waste sites in the city, said all children who have stayed at the shelter should be tested for lead poisoning.
“Lead is a terrible poison for children,” Harris said. “Paint chips and even lead dust can cause permanent neurological damage. I am concerned that all of these children are found and tested as soon as possible.”
Vicki Sheriff, newly appointed chief executive officer of the YWCA of Greater Baltimore, said she did not know how long her predecessors had been aware of the lead hazard.
Lead is particularly hazardous to children under 6. Lead poisoning can retard the development of the brain and cause learning disabilities and aggressive behavior later in life. Once children have elevated blood lead levels, no medical treatment exists to reverse the effects.
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, city health commissioner, said that after an extensive cleanup, the city tested children who had stayed at the shelter during the past year and found no elevated lead levels in any of them.
But a Health Department review of records going back a few years indicated several cases of lead poisoning exceeding 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood, the level the state deems dangerous, Sharfstein said.
Advocates for the homeless said locating and testing all the children who had stayed at the shelter could be a challenge.
“The tenuous nature of the housing of the homeless means it?s going to take concerted effort to locate everyone and test them,” said Jeff Singer, CEO of Healthcare for the Homeless, which provides healthservice for homeless people.
