By Chris Carroll
Of The Post-Dispatch
Recent tests of the interiors of houses in Herculaneum show that at some homes, lead pollution might be as much a threat indoors as it was in the yards and streets.

Herculaneum is the site of the nation's largest lead smelter, owned by the Doe Run Co. The company is in the midst of a government-required plan to reduce air emissions from the century-old smelter and clean up accumulated pollution in Herculaneum.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency vacuumed up dust inside 65 houses and measured the amount of lead in the dust.

Tony Petruska, EPA project manager for the cleanup at Herculaneum, said that some samples contained almost no lead but that others contained up to a quarter of a gram of lead. He said there was no question that lead was getting into houses.

"We were trying to get a handle on how big an issue interior dust is, and what we've seen is that it is an issue that we need to do more work on," Petruska said. "Our next step will be to do a much more thorough look at interior dust."

Petruska said the tests had been conducted mainly at homes where high levels of lead had been found in yards and where children with lead poisoning lived. What the study did not address, Petruska said, was where in the homes the dust was found or how likely people would be to ingest or breathe in the lead.

Further testing will try to gauge how much of a risk the lead in homes presents and how best to keep it out. Doe Run will be billed for the work.

An earlier government study, the results of which were released in September, also indicated that lead was entering houses.

That study, conducted by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Inventory, went further than the EPA's recent tests. It chemically analyzed lead isotopes found in the houses and in residents' bodies and concluded that the lead probably had come from the smelter rather than from lead paint, water or other potential sources.

For now, Petruska said, Herculaneum residents might be able to reduce risk by trying to vacuum or wipe up dust as much as possible.

"There are cleaning techniques that can be used, everything from vacuuming with a hepavacuum (a vacuum cleaner designed not to recirculate dust in the air) to shampooing carpets with various detergents," he said. "The cleaning techniques generally used to remove dusts and dirts are the cleaning techniques that can be used to remove the lead dust."

Hepavacuum cleaners can be checked out from Herculaneum's city government.

A Herculaneum alderman who is a frequent critic of Doe Run said the government's testing didn't tell Herculaneum residents anything they didn't already know.

"Absolutely not," said Leslie Warden. "It's gone on for so many years . . . I complained to Doe Run about this dust in 1998."





Published in the Metro section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday, November 19, 2001.
Copyright (C)2001, St. Louis Post-Dispatch