The Washington Post - 07.08.2019

(C. Jardin) #1

B2 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7 , 2019


ed to the problem at a routine
checkup in May, when she regis-
tered a lead level of 35 micro-
grams per deciliter. Most c hildren
who are born in the United States,
as Vaishnavi was, have a lead level
below three.
The turmeric was the only sub-
stance the baby actually con-
sumed. But health officials told

her parents that sediment from
the makeup and jewelry also
probably made its way from her
hands and into her mouth.
In the weeks since Maryland
health officials visited their h ome,
the couple have swapped out their
daughter’s gold bangles for plas-
tic ones, substituted CVS-bought
Maybelline makeup in place o f the

Indian powders they once used
for the bindi on her forehead, and
tossed their old spices in favor of
new products from Costco.
At her most recent blood test,
Vaishnavi recorded a lead level of
16.
Rachakulla is relieved but said
more needs to be done.
“The information has not

spread. It was first-time informa-
tion for us,” said the 39-year-old
software engineer, who moved to
the United States in 2008. “If we
knew, we’d be the first to shout it
out aloud.... There needs to be an
alarm.”
In recent weeks, Rachakulla
has tried to warn other South
Asian immigrants in his neigh-
borhood and at his workplace
about the risks of lead contamina-
tion from imported products. He
confronted the owner of one of
the Indian grocery stores he fre-
quents about the turmeric but
said all he got was a half-believing
shrug.
In R achakulla’s experience, im-
migrant families are not hesitant
to part ways with tradition once
they realize there are health risks.
The challenge, he said, is that
people often find it hard to believe
that items so deeply rooted in
their cultures can be dangerous.
“This needs to be addressed as
a serious, serious thing,” Ra-
chakulla said, sitting in his apart-
ment with Vaishnavi beside him.
“I want it to be seen as a problem.”
[email protected]

of lead poisoning that dispropor-
tionately affect immigrant com-
munities whose members un-
knowingly bring in contaminated
products from their home coun-
tries.
“We were very, very shocked,”
Rachakulla said in an interview at
his home in Gaithersburg, Md. “I
have never known that these
things would have been contami-
nated with impurities.”
Some products containing
lead, such as kajal, have been
banned by the Food and Drug
Administration but can still be
purchased at specialty grocery
stores or brought by travelers
from overseas. A 2010 report from
the World Health Organization
found that 19 percent of all the
herbal products manufactured in
South Asia and sold in South
Asian grocery stores in Boston
contained lead.
From as early as 1991, medical
journals have reported cases of
elevated lead levels in immigrant
communities across the country.
These tend to be isolated inci-
dents, however, and do not often
elicit a strong or broad-based re-
sponse from local officials.
The problem is “not something
that is an epidemic but [is] cer-
tainly very persistent,” said Lance
Chilton, a medical toxicologist
from Albuquerque who worked
on a case similar to Vaishnavi’s in
2013.
Aparna Bole, the chair of the
American Association of Pediat-
rics’ Council on Environmental
Health, agreed, adding that lead
poisoning from imported prod-
ucts is a well-described issue
among pediatricians but not par-
ticularly well known among par-
ents.
Kelly Johnson-Arbor, the co-di-
rector of the District’s National
Capital Poison Center, said she
sees at least one incident a year of
children of immigrants poisoned
with lead-contaminated import-
ed products. Health officials in
Fairfax and Arlington counties
reported two to four such cases
annually, often involving families
who emigrated from South Asian,
Middle Eastern or African coun-
tries. Sources can include makeup
products, spices and glazed kitch-
enware.
Montgomery County officials
said county data does not suggest
a higher incidence of lead expo-
sure in any particular racial or
ethnic category. In 2017, the total
number of lead poisoning cases in
the county was so low that it did
not qualify for additional state
funding for dedicated outreach
programs.
Vaishnavi’s parents were alert-


LEAD FROM B1


The administration’s search
for extra shelter space under-
scores the intense backlash in
recent months over the squalid
conditions in crowded federal
shelters at the border, where visi-
tors have described seeing un-
bathed children wearing clothes
caked with snot and tears, tod-
dlers without diapers and teen-
age mothers in clothes stained
with breast milk.
Last month, a report from the
Department of Homeland Secu-
rity’s Office of Inspector General
found “serious” overcrowding at
U.S. Border Patrol detention cen-
ters in the Rio Grande Valley of
Te xas, where the number of unac-
companied minors apprehended
— most of them arriving from
Central America — jumped
62 percent in 12 months to nearly
24,000 in May.
“The current migration flow
and the resulting humanitarian
crisis are rapidly overwhelming
the ability of the Federal Govern-
ment to respond,” a Homeland
Security official said in a memo
responding to the report.
The Office of Refugee Resettle-
ment is charged with finding
longer-term shelter for unaccom-
panied minors and, where possi-
ble, reuniting them with relatives
in the United States after con-
ducting background checks.
The agency funds about 170
shelters in 23 states, with about
8,700 unaccompanied minors in
those facilities.
In Virginia, about 130 unac-
companied minors are being
housed in the commonwealth’s
two largest federally funded shel-
ters — Youth for To morrow in
Prince William County and the
Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Cen-
ter in Staunton, immigrant advo-
cates say.
The GSA solicitation says the
administration is looking to lease
close to 110,000 square feet for 15
years in an area that includes
Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and
Prince William counties, plus the
smaller cities that surround those
jurisdictions.
The lease is part of a plan by
HHS to build permanent shelters
in parts of the country where
relatives of unaccompanied mi-
nors already live in hopes of
eliminating the need to rely on
temporary shelters when the flow
of migrants at t he border sudden-
ly escalates, officials said.
Once completed, the “Virginia
Residential Child Care Facility”
would begin housing the children
next spring, officials said.
The shelter would have a staff
of 147 people and would be
equipped with classrooms, sleep-
ing areas and an extra two acres
of outdoor space for recreation,
the solicitation said. Bids for the
lease are due Aug. 13.
The announcement caught lo-
cal government officials and im-
migrant advocates by surprise.
Sharon Bulova (D-At Large),
chairman of Fairfax County’s
Board of Supervisors, said she
was “puzzled,” given Northern
Virginia’s expensive lease rates.
“This is one of the most expen-
sive parts of the country, much
less, in Northern Virginia, we are
the most expensive part of the
state,” Bulova said.
But, she said, “there are many
nonprofits and charitable organi-
zations in this area that would be
glad to be supportive, I’m sure.”
Immigrant advocates said the
idea of one large shelter for unac-
companied minors is worrisome.
“The notion that the same level
of care could be provided at a
440-bed facility as at a 100-bed
facility is a little hard to imagine,”
said Simon Sandoval-Moshen-
berg, legal director of the Legal
Aid Justice Center’s Immigrant
Advocacy Program.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said the
Trump administration should be
working harder to reunite unac-
companied minors with relatives
here.
“There are more cases that are
taking forever, hundreds and
hundreds of days,” he said. “We
don’t believe that they would
need facilities of that nature if
they would more efficiently use
the facilities they currently have
by releasing more kids more
quickly.”
[email protected]

SHELTERS FROM B1

Md. family wants hidden lead sources publicized


Solicitation


surprises


advocates,


officials


Some of the jewelry once worn
by Vaishnavi Rachakulla, left,
is suspected of contributing to
the baby girl’s elevated lead
levels. Recent tests indicate
that those levels are decreasing.

PHOTOS BY CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN/THE WASHINGTON POST

MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

A whirl on the dance floor
Jennie Harlow, 26, practices for a moment during a Waltz Time event in the Spanish Ballroom of Maryland’s Glen
Echo Park this week. The twice­monthly dances, held since 1995, include lessons and are open to people of all skill
levels, no partners required. The restored 1933 art deco building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

BY MARTIN WEIL

In Washington, the most im-
portant fact of daily life may
sometimes be whether a summer
thunderstorm passes overhead or
not. Rain inundated parts of the
area Tuesday night, but in other
places, not so much.
In the immediate Washington
area, the severest impact ap-
peared to be in Montgomery
County, as roads were flooded,
trees were toppled, and power
went out. Around 9 p.m., Pepco
reported that 4,800 homes and
businesses in its service area
lacked electricity. A bout 900 were
in Montgomery, near Bradley
Lane and Wisconsin Avenue in
the Bethesda/Chevy Chase area.
A river of overflow and runoff
surged across Bradley Boulevard
near Kendale Road in the Poto-
mac area, said Pete Piringer, the
spokesman for the county fire
and rescue service.
In Baltimore, city streets were
flooded and lightning caused
what the city fire department said
was a three-alarm fire in houses
on Greenmount Avenue.
But it was possible to miss
most or all of the storms. Partici-
pants in a long-running protest
outside the White House report-
edly performed an “anti-rain”
da nce, described on Twitter as
briefly effective. “Thunder and
lightning, but not a drop of rain,”
a tweet said at one point.
[email protected]


Rain hits


hard in


D.C. area


Not a PostPoints member yet?
It’s free. Sign up and get rewarded.
washingtonpost.com/postpoints

THE DAILY QUIZ MEMBER EXCLUSIVES DID YOU KNOW?

EARN 5 POINTS: Find the answer, and then go to
washingtonpost.com/postpoints, Quizzes to enter the
correct response.

For Good Folk: Free Tickets to The Waifs
on August 15 at The Birchmere
The Australian folk trio featuring sisters Donna Simpson & Vikki Thorn and
co-bandleader Joshua Cunningham marked its 25th anniversary just two years
back with Ironbark , a 25-track double album. It’s a collection of “intimate,
heartfelt songs that move at the speed of a road trip.” (RollingStone.com)
“Where there’s a will there’s The Waifs.” (AdelaideReview.com.au) See details at
washingtonpost.com/postpoints, Events & Contests.

Catchy Tune: Specially Priced Tickets to Jim James —
The Order of Nature: A Song Cycle on September 4 at
The Kennedy Center
Th e eclectic frontman and founder of indie-rock band My Morning Jacket will team up
with conductor Teddy Abrams for a special performance of the orchestral song cycle
The Order of Nature featuring vocal chorusTheCapital Hearings.The first half of the
evening will feature Mason Bates’s “Warehouse Medicine” from The B-Sides , Julia
Wolfe’s “Big Beautiful Dark and Scary” and Aaron Copland’s “Four Dance Episodes”
from Rodeo. See details at washingtonpost.com/postpoints, Coupons & Discounts.

We love summer produce, but it can
go bad fast. Why?
(Hint:The answer is in Becky Krystal’s story on the first page
of today’s Food section.)
Free download pdf