Lead Poisoning Advisory Committee

As a CDC committee prepared to consider changing childhood lead poisoning standards, HHS removed qualified scientists from the panel and replaced them with lead industry consultants.

In the summer of 2002, CDC’s Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention was preparing to confront the controversial issue of whether to expand the diagnosis of lead poisoning to include children with lower levels of blood lead. For more than a decade, the committee had advised intervention if levels measured 10 micrograms per deciliter or greater.[1] While the lead industry has opposed lowering the standard,[2] recent research has suggested that the cognitive development of children may be impaired at levels of 5 micrograms per deciliter or lower.[3] As the committee prepared to consider changing the standard, HHS Secretary Thompson removed or rejected several qualified scientists and replaced them with lead industry consultants.[4]

Specifically, HHS failed to reappoint Dr. Michael Weitzman of the University of Rochester and then rejected the nominations of Dr. Bruce Lanphear of the University of Cincinatti and Dr. Susan Klitzman of the Hunter College School of Health Sciences. These preeminent scientists have each published numerous papers in the scientific literature on lead poisoning.[5]

In their place, HHS proposed several individuals with significant ties to the lead industry. These included Dr. William Banner, who has served as an expert witness for Sherwin-Williams paint company, a maker of lead paint, and Dr. Joyce Tsuji, who worked for two companies that represented lead firms.[6]

The appointment of Dr. Banner was particularly egregious. His only lead-related research publications involved experimental treatment of rats.[7] Dr. Banner has testified that a lead level of 70 micrograms per deciliter is safe for children’s brains.[8] This position does not appear to be shared by any expert or scientific organization independent of the lead industry. In fact, contrary evidence emerged over 30 years ago, and as early as 15 years ago there was scientific consensus that children’s brains were damaged by lower levels of lead.[9]

Information later emerged that the lead industry had played a key role in the appointments. Another new nominee, Dr. Sergio Piomelli, said at the committee’s October 2002 meeting: “Before some reporter detects it, I would like you to know that I was called a few months ago from somebody in the lead industry . . . and asked if I don’t mind if they nominated me for this committee. I said, ‘Yes.’”[10] Drs. Banner and Piomelli have since become members of the committee.[11]

[1] Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, Preventing Lead Poisoning in Young Children (Oct. 1, 1991).

[2] Lead Poisoning Science Panel “Contaminated” by Bias, Critics Charge, Gannett News Service (Nov. 26, 2002).

[3] R. Canfield et al., Intellectual Impairment in Children With Blood Lead Concentration Below 10, New England Journal of Medicine, 1517–26 (Apr. 17, 2003).

[4] Staff of Representative Edward J. Markey, Turning Lead Into Gold: How the Bush Administration Is Poisoning the Lead Advisory Committee at the CDC (Oct. 8, 2002).

[5] Dr. Michael Weitzman is the executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Center for Child Health Research and a former member of the New York State Advisory Council on Lead Poisoning Prevention. Dr. Lanphear is the Sloan Professor Children’s Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati and a former member of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Task Force in the Monroe County Health Department. Dr. Susan Klitzman is Associate Professor of Urban Public Health at the Hunter College School of Health Sciences and the former head of the New York City Health Department’s lead poisoning prevention program. All have published multiple papers in the peer-reviewed medical literature on lead poisoning.

[6] Office of Representative Edward J. Markey, Lead Poisoning Advisory Panel Weighed Down by Lead Industry’s Friends (Oct. 8, 2002).

[7] Deposition of Dr. William Banner, Jr., (June 13, 2002), in State of Rhode Island v. Lead Industries Assoc., C.A. No. 99-5526 (Sup. Ct. R.I. Apr. 2, 2001).

[8] Id. (“Question: So the absence of encephalopathy, which you have indicated is possible above lead levels of 70 but more likely of lead levels above 100, you don’t believe — is it your opinion that there are no central nervous system deficits or injuries that are associated with exposure and ingestion of lead? Answer: Well, you’re using the word ‘associated.’ Question: Okay. That’s right, I am. Answer: And no I don’t believe there have been — no”).

[9] See, e.g., B. De la Burde and M .S. Choate, Does Asymptomatic Lead Exposure in Children Have Latent Sequelae? Journal of Pediatrics, 1088–1091 (Dec. 1972); American Academy of Pediatrics, Statement on Childhood Lead Poisoning, Pediatrics, 457–465 (Mar. 1987).

[10] Toxic: The Lead Industry Gets Its Turn, New Republic (Dec. 23, 2002).s

[11] CDC, Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Roster (online at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/ACCLPP/members.htm).