Pair of Surrey educators try to get the lead out

By Alex Browne - Peace Arch News

Published: June 25, 2009 3:00 PM

School days – especially for elementary age children – are not the way many adults remember them.

Learning disabilities, declining IQ levels, attention deficit disorder, autism and behaviour problems – such as violence and delinquency – have become epidemic among children over the last few decades.

Joanna Cerazy and Sandra Cottingham are two Surrey school district special-education specialists – Cerazy as a hands-on worker with a caseload, Cottingham as a district level consultant – who have seen the increase in children with such problems. And it’s become clear it’s a problem not just affecting children in their own school district, but worldwide.

Rather than continue to find ways to cope with symptoms, the two colleagues decided instead to question why.

What they found was a mass of evidence and research to suggest exposure to lead in our environment – passed on to unborn children – is the primary cause of the upswing.

Their just-released book, Lead Babies (Kunati Books), is being launched this weekend at Grandview Corners.

Cerazy, a South Surrey resident, said that in more than 20 years in education, starting in her native Poland, she has seen the incidence of developmental problems rise to almost one in every six children.

“We wanted to know what’s going on,” she said. “We started researching various toxins and realized that lead was causing it – that even a low level of lead exposure can cause very serious problems.”

While the toxic effects of lead have been known for years, Lead Babies gathers together the latest research concerning in utero transfer of lead from mother to baby, showing that lead – from a multitude of apparently harmless sources – can pass into the brain and other organs of unborn children.

As sobering as the message is, there is hope to reverse the trend.

The authors assert the aim of Lead Babies is to take a positive approach, provide practical information that will allow parents to lead-proof their homes and protect their children from the beginning of pregnancy through the early childhood years.

“We didn’t want to scare the heck out of people, we wanted to empower them,” said Cottingham, a North Delta resident.

“We’re saying we can do this for another generation, or if we’re really aware of it, we can break the cycle. We’re saying here’s the process we need to go through to lead-proof our homes. It’s not that scary, it’s not that difficult. It’s doable.”

Cottingham said they didn’t set out to write a book on lead.

“We wondered what would happen if we took research from a lot of different disciplines, from toxicology to neurology, and put together all the pieces of the puzzle,” she said.

There is a well-known tendency for different scientific research disciplines to co-exist in isolation, Cottingham said, but when she and Cerazy started correlating data from many of them, a clear pattern emerged.

“The answer kept coming up lead – and the heavy metals in general,” she said

There is, for example, a section in the book on mercury – which has been linked with autistic behaviours.

“But there’s a significant increase in the toxic effect of mercury when there is lead in people’s systems. There’s a synergistic effect. It’s a missing piece of the puzzle, one you might not see if you’re only looking at mercury. But lead is such a key piece.”

The lead industry is still flourishing, Cerazy and Cottingham report. Lead is an important component in many cosmetics, and is a key ingredient in plastics that are required to be bendable, including toys. It can even be found in some kinds of imported candy.

While some have been lulled by the notion that there are “acceptable levels” of lead, the authors say their research indicates that there is no such thing as a “safe” level where lead is concerned.

“I demonstrate to people by showing them three granules of table sugar,” said Cottingham.

“That’s the equivalent amount of lead it takes to cause brain damage in a child.”

Again, Cottingham emphasizes that the book is intended to present practical solutions, not induce panic.

And judging by hits on the authors’ website, the book is already generating a large amount of interest internationally, a fact she finds heartening.

“I really think we can break this cycle,” she said.

Cerazy and Cottingham will be on-hand at Indigo Books at Grandview Corners this Sunday (June 28) from 2 to 4 p.m. to launch their book and discuss their findings.

LEAD BABIES
Breaking the cycle of learning disabilities, declining IQ, ADHD, behavior problems, and autism

Authors: Joanna Cerazy M.Ed. and Sandra Cottingham Ph.D
www.nomoreleadbabies.com
Publisher: Kunati Inc (USA & Canada) 1-866-356-2442
www.kunati.com
Distribution: Independent Publishers Group (IPG)
ISBN: 978-1-60164-192-2