
DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997             TAG: 9704160481

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  132 lines

THEY'RE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR LEAD IN OLDER HOUSES, THESE WOMEN HELP KEEP CHILDREN POISON-FREE.

The women in yellow T-shirts were stalking the school parking lot, looking for likely targets.

Inez Combre spotted hers: a young mother dropping off her son.

Combre approached, gripping a fistful of brochures on preventing lead-paint poisoning.

A moment later, the mother, Anita Stallings, agreed to let Combre visit her at home to test for lead-paint dust levels.

``I just want to keep healthy kids all the time,'' said Stallings, who has three small children. ``But I do have a friend where her house did have lead poisoning in it, and three of her kids ended up with lead. So it hits home.''

Lead-paint poisoning hits home for many residents in older, lower-income neighborhoods, such as Park Place, where Stallings lives.

Many houses and apartments were built before 1978, when lead-based paint was popularly used. And for many years, the paint has been cracking, flaking and peeling - creating a health hazard for curious and crawling children.

While statistics for Park Place were not readily available, Norfolk's Public Health Department counted 1,048 cases citywide of children with elevated lead levels in 1996. Some were repeat incidents, but the pattern was consistent with other recent years.

The figure represents 11.7 percent of Norfolk children who were tested.

Now, a federally funded public-health program is trying to demonstrate how neighborhoods like Park Place can take an active role in reducing lead-paint dangers.

The $1.6 million program, Prevention Through Partnerships, trains and hires longtime residents like Combre to test homes where young children live and teach parents to prevent lead poisoning.

The idea is that people would be more likely to open their homes to neighbors from community groups than to health inspectors.

``We're just like surrogate mothers to the young mothers. Our relationship doesn't end when we go in and do a wipe test for lead,'' said Earlean White, who leads a six-woman crew of outreach ``neighborhood educators.''

Besides White and Combre, members are Alma Walker, Ellen Porter, Kim Alston and Pat Mabina. They hope to test 400 houses by June, mostly in Park Place, Villa Heights and Lamberts Point.

With their yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the program's name, the neighborhood educators seek out young parents walking or driving their children to James Monroe Elementary School or the nearby community center.

Still, not everybody welcomes the neighborhood educators. Some shy away, even when offered a ride to their homes.

White believes that many inner-city people, particularly renters, still fear anything related to governmental visits.

Even when their children show high lead levels in blood tests, White said, ``they tend not to want to follow through because landlords have told them, `If the health department comes in, you're going to have to move.'

``So our biggest problem has been removing the fear.''

Neighborhood educators assure residents that they won't lose their homes because of the lead-paint tests or followups.

That's why another phase of the program hires and trains unemployed people to renovate lead-contaminated homes.

``There's great value in it,'' said Kris Meek, who coordinates the program for the Norfolk Public Health Department. ``One of the focuses of the project is to build the technical skills and educational capacity of a community to identify lead hazards. It also enables a community like Park Place to have some control over its housing stock, because we want to keep our affordable housing. We can never replicate those old houses.''

Each two-member team of neighborhood educators earns $20 for every house they work with, including doing a lead-paint wipe test and making followup visits to work with the families.

Recently, White and Combre went to the apartment of Charity Elsbery, who has twin 20-month-old boys.

With the twins perched on a bedroom dresser, White showed Elsbery some techniques for cleaning lead-paint dust from window sills, floorboards and hardwood floors.

``These areas are key because that's where children crawl around,'' White said.

The educators maintain an upbeat chatter with the young mothers they visit.

``We're going to give you a gift - a mop, a bucket and rubber gloves!'' White declared, as she also presented Elsbery with a wide grin. Elsbery laughed but paid attention.

The neighborhood educators take care not to criticize the housekeeping styles of the women they visit but to help them enhance their skills when living in older homes.

Cracking and peeling paint means there's a strong likelihood of lead-paint dangers. But poisoning also can come from more innocent-looking dust that accumulates from the routine scraping of wood against wood when windows and doors open and shut.

White knows from experience. In the late 1970s, her daughter Thelma, now 18, was diagnosed with lead-paint poisoning after complaining about achy knees.

``She's all right now,'' White said. ``But her lead level was so high she had to be hospitalized.''

Her daughter had ingested lead-paint dust that had settled after the ceilings in their house had been repaired. ``She was just crawling around and sucking her thumb,'' White recalled.

Small children, usually under age 6, are the most susceptible to lead-paint poisoning, White said, because their bodies tend to retain the material.

Diets high in fat and sugar can exacerbate the problem, she said. But low-fat foods such as fruits and whole grains can help the body get rid of lead.

So, when neighborhood educators do home visits, they also talk about diets and post food tips on refrigerator doors.

Elsbery met White and Combre outside the Park Place Multi-purpose Center. ``They came up to me and told me about the program and asked me if they can come over to do a lead-paint test,'' she said. ``I told them it was all right because I have small kids. It's crossed my mind before.''

White and Combre, who carry test kits when they walk and drive through the neighborhood, followed Elsbery home.

``It's more like we hijack them right on the street,'' Combre chuckled. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

photos

Inez Combre searches out mothers of young children, like Anita

Stallings, left, and convinces them to let her visit and test for

lead.

Regular cleaning where children play can prevent the risk of lead

poisoning. Earlean White, left, demonstrates as Inez Combre and

Charity Elsbery, holding her son Darien, watch.

Graphic

Symptoms of Lead Poisoning Include:

Stomach cramps