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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Lead poisoning topic of North Idaho talk

The Spokesman-Review

A noted expert on lead poisoning will visit North Idaho this week to push for expanded blood testing for children.

John Rosen, professor of pediatrics and head of the division of Environmental Sciences at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, will give a presentation on the “completely preventable health issues” of lead at 7 p.m. Thursday at Kootenai Medical Center’s Health Resource Center in Coeur d’Alene.

The presentation is aimed at health professionals and parents of young children.

Rosen has been involved with the treatment of about 23,000 lead-poisoned children since the 1970s. He has long been calling for expanded blood testing for children living in Idaho’s Silver Valley and for better tracking of the region’s lead pollution.

Rosen has also criticized Idaho’s handling of health issues related to the Superfund cleanup site in the Silver Valley. Statistics on lead levels in blood, as reported by the Panhandle Health District, “are perplexing and open to question,” according to a 2003 report by Rosen.

Lead levels in blood have declined dramatically since the 1970s, when the Silver Valley experienced the nation’s worst outbreak of blood lead poisoning, but more work needs to be done, said Barbara Miller, director of the Silver Valley Resource Council. Rosen serves as a consultant to the council.

“There’s still an effort to downplay the situation because of the stigma,” of being a major Superfund site, Miller said. “Lead poisoning is a totally preventable illness, but it can’t be prevented unless people and families know where it exists and how to reduce exposure.”

– James Hagengruber

Commission approves Kinkade cottages

Thomas Kinkade’s English cottages are coming to Coeur d’Alene.

The Kootenai County commission unanimously approved a proposal last week to build seven homes that replicate the best-selling California artist’s soft-focused cottages.

The Gates of Coeur d’Alene project will be the second housing development for Kinkade.

HST Group signed a licensing agreement to build the Kinkade-themed development on nearly 24 acres overlooking Lake Coeur d’Alene.

In June, a county hearing examiner recommended approval of the project. County planning staff said work on the steep hillside could pose aesthetic and slope stability problems. The county also questions whether proposed storm water controls would work on the slope.

Erica Curless