High lead levels found at health offices

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- High levels of lead dust have been found at the office that houses the Allegheny County, Pa., Health Department's anti-lead poisoning program, officials say.

Nina Ewall, an Allegheny County lead program inspector, told Sunday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that peeling, lead-based paint in the dilapidated county-owned complex is the likeliest suspect.

Ewall told the newspaper she performed a series of "wipe sample" tests in the building and found consistently high lead dust levels on the second floor windowsills of the lead program offices, as well as in third-floor offices occupied by the county's Food Safety Division. She alleged county officials haven't addressed the "astronomically high" lead levels.

"I'd really like something done about this. And they've done nothing," Ewall told the Post-Gazette. "I think it's a hazard to the workers and to have children come in here and give blood samples in this building is just not right."

The newspaper said Ewall and a representative of her union met this month with Dr. Bruce Dixon, executive director of the county Health Department, about the lead levels. He reportedly said the building's lead levels pose "no health hazard" to adult workers there.