Peeling lead paint from old buildings is raining down on several Cincinnati neighborhoods, contaminating nearby homes and exposing children to potentially harmful lead paint dust. It may take millions of dollars and thousands of labor hours to stop but, local experts say, it's important to at least start.

        This fall, University of Cincinnati researchers and Cincinnati Job Corps students are stripping paint from these buildings and repainting them safely in a program called Smart Streets.

        Over-the-Rhine, with its large concentration of old buildings, is a top target, said Dr. Robert Bornschein, a professor in UC's Department of Environmental Health.

        “We have 2,000 buildings in Over-the-Rhine; probably 200 pose a potential health risk to the community and particularly to children ... because of the high amounts of lead dust on the sidewalks,” he said.

        Job Corps students will start on exteriors of at least five abandoned or residential buildings facing Vine Street, between Green Street and McMicken Avenue, adding to the five other buildings a contractor has repainted, said Bill Menrath, project coordinator.

        In the spring, the group plans on tackling more buildings as the weather warms and funding increases, he said. Just the five buildings this fall will cost at least $45,000 to complete.

        UC has been monitoring the amount of exterior lead paint contamination in the city's older neighborhoods since the mid-1990s. At first, the high lead levels on some streets baffled researchers.

        The federal standard for acceptable amounts is 800 micrograms of lead per square foot of painted surface. Over-the-Rhine buildings averaged 11,000 micro grams, and a few a million or more.

        “When I first saw those high numbers in 1995, I didn't believe them,” Dr. Bornschein said.

        Lead dust is primarily the byproduct of trampled lead paint chips. Most commercial and residential buildings in Over-the-Rhine and, to a lesser extent, Lower Price Hill and Oakley, were built well before the use of lead paint was outlawed in 1978.

        Those buildings tend to have several coats of lead paint on facades built flush with the sidewalk. Sidewalks, unlike lawns or landscaping, hold onto the paint chips, which are trampled underfeet into lead dust.

        Getting rid of the dust isn't as easy as sweeping it away, Dr. Bornschein said.

        “When we clean up, if we just vacuum the streets and the sidewalks, it recontaminates in a matter of days,” he said.

        “There's enough paint on the buildings for the problem to continue for years. It could run into the decades.”

        Smart Streets is just the first step in what could become a citywide effort, he said.

        The project, currently funded through a $475,000 grant from HUD, also pays to establish a neighborhood lead paint resource office as well as additional lead-abatement research.

        Next summer, organizers hope, Smart Streets will obtain several million dollars, from the Cincinnati Empowerment Zone and HUD for longer-term, more widespread work, he said.

        Lead poisoning in children can lead to permanent brain damage and other developmental delays. But it is hard to track its effects.

        So far this year, the lead clinic at Children's Hospital — which handles the serious children's lead cases in Cincinnati - has diagnosed 13 children with lead poisoning serious enough to warrant hospital treatment, said Dr. Omer Berger, the clinic's director.

        That number is an improvement over the contamination rates of the late 1950s, when 20 to 30 children died here each year. During the 1960s through the 1980s, when lead exposure still came from gasoline and food, there were many more hospitalizations but fewer deaths.

        Cincinnati's last lead death, experts believe, was a child in 1973.

        Lead paint's dangers are a communitywide concern, said Dr. Bornschein.

        “It could be in the West End, Mount Auburn or in any community,” he said.

Bioterror a threat at the doorstep
Anthrax scare wasn't funny to employer
Scare at Sharonville mail center
Scares scramble emergency squads
Muslims fight fear, anger with understanding
Airport security fix up in air
Airport tries to cope with parking problems
City fire chief seeking money for preparedness
Tall Stacks back in October 2003
Morgue trial jurors deliberate second day
Project aims to remove lead paint
Some schools would lose in budget plan
Commission considers loan fund
Fuller, Luken meet in only radio debate
Norwood's Foust to carry Olympic torch
Obituary: George Helwig was archery expert
State tax increases possible
Tenn. judge nominated for city-based 6th Circuit Court
Annexation attempt may hit a roadblock
Congrats
Good News: Workers give $129K for relief
Indictment in drug case
Local Digest
Traficant cites privilege in seeking evidence suppression
Victims' compensation overhauled
Foal deaths may cost horse industry $336M
Kentucky Digest
New jail may oust agencies
Politics blamed for fund loss
Kentucky quarter draws interest
Rifle barrage hits cruiser