Silver Valley Checkups Considered Federal Agency Studies Which Lead-Related Illnesses To Target

A federal agency is trying to decide which lead-related illnesses suffered by Silver Valley residents could be helped by regular check-ups.

A team of doctors, scientists and the nation’s top lead poisoning experts are meeting in Kellogg this week to determine whether so-called medical monitoring will help people exposed to lead during the 1970s.

The program they are considering would provide free medical checkups for several thousand people around the country who were exposed to record levels of lead from Bunker Hill.

But scientists are struggling to determine which lead-related diseases could even be helped after detection.

Lead-poisoning has been linked with kidney disease, some forms of cancer, brain disorders and other nervous system problems.

Some diseases, like hypertension, are treatable. Diagnosis, said Dr. Maureen Lichtveld, with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, could lead to intervention.

But others are more complicated, she said.

Sometimes the treatment is arguably as bad as the problem.

Lead is stored for up to 30 years in bone and becomes dangerous when it is released from that bone - as it is during menopause, for example.

But the treatment for that lead release is hormone replacement therapy, which can put women at greater risk for breast cancer.

“So the question becomes, should we offer free screening for those women who are around the age of menopause?” Lichtveld said.

The team will continue debating those questions today at the Elks Lodge in Kellogg.

The results will be compiled in a report due out in early winter.

That’s when the agency will determine whether to proceed with the regular free checkups.

Some Silver Valley residents have argued that the questions aren’t even relevant unless the federal government plans to pay for the treatment.

They complain that the agency - known as ATSDR - has done nothing but poke and prod them for decades.

But one panelist, a 25-year-old lead poisoning victim now a nurse in Medical Lake disagrees.

“The way I see it is nobody has ever been there to offer any intervention or treatment for me,” said Kaye Conrath, whose childhood lead levels were among the highest ever recorded.

“This is the first time, and it’s coming from ATSDR. That’s a good sign.”

, DataTimes