Silver Valley Lead Study Seeks Adults State Looking For Anyone Who May Have Been Exposed

Idaho health officials are searching for people who lived in the Silver Valley or worked at the Bunker Hill Co. between 1973 and 1981.

The state’s advertising campaign begins a program that, for the first time, will offer free medical tests to adults who were exposed to lead pollution from the Bunker Hill smelter.

Testing will check for three possible results of lead poisoning: high blood pressure, kidney disease and adult attention deficit disorder.

“All three of those outcomes are things you can do something about,” said Greg Thomas of the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

People who have medical problems will be referred to doctors.

The federal agency has budgeted $700,000 for the program. The Idaho Division of Health is using some of that money to identify and question people who lived in the Silver Valley during the time of the worst pollution.

Idaho officials want to gauge the interest of the public before deciding if the state will be involved in the actual monitoring program, said Heather Parks of the Division of Health. Idaho doctors also are being asked their opinions about the effectiveness and scope of the testing.

“We’ll decide whether to proceed based on how people feel about it. I don’t know if I can say that’s a majority vs. minority (decision),” Parks said.

If Idaho steps aside, either another contractor or ATSDR itself will do the monitoring.

Although an estimated 80 percent of the affected people have moved outside of the state, the radio and newspaper advertising campaign is focusing on Idaho. People from out of state are welcome to call, said Parks.

“We’ll definitely take their names and concerns and give them the same information we’re giving anyone else.”

Medical monitoring is new to the ATSDR, which deals with toxic waste issues for the national Centers for Disease Control. Monitoring is being done in connection with only two Superfund sites, both in the Northwest: Bunker Hill and the Hanford nuclear reservation.

“Idaho wanted to go through this assessment phase. We think it’s a very good idea,” Thomas said. “Would people participate? What would help them? For health-care providers, what’s the most costeffective way?”

A panel of medical experts met three times to decide which tests would be most useful, Thomas said.

Jerry Cobb of the Panhandle Health District in Kellogg said he hopes Idaho will be involved in the monitoring. State officials would be able to “customize” the program to suit people’s needs.

“They could find people quicker and more cheaply than if the feds do it from Atlanta,” he said.

Critics of the monitoring project have complained that sick people should be given medical care, not just referrals.

Who to call People who lived in or between the towns of Pinehurst and Wallace and/or worked at the Bunker Hill Co. between 1973 and 1981 are being asked to call the Idaho Division of Health. The toll-free number is (877) 201-4264. Callers will be given information about a federally funded medical monitoring program, and about health problems that may appear many years after exposure to lead.