GEM 1

Lead Contamination in East Chicago, IN

Introduction

Vice News, alongside HBO, reports on lead contamination in East Chicago, Indiana at the West Calumet Housing Complex. Lead levels were measured by a team of citizen scientists in Dr. Gabriel Filippelli's lab at IUPUI, and were found to be double the acceptable limit of lead pollution, according to the USEPA. The effects of these elevated lead levels are long-lasting for the community. This GEM first summarizes the scientific background of lead uses, processing, and health effects; then summarizes the groups of people involved or affected by this issue. Watch the video on the right to begin learning about lead contamination in East Chicago, IN.

Scientific Context

What is lead and where does it come from?

Lead is both a chemical element on the periodic table (atomic number 82, symbol Pb) and a mineral when it occurs in a pure, crystalline state. The chemical properties of lead make is useful in power storage and delivery applications.

Lead rarely occurs in its pure form in nature, but is found in Earth’s crust commonly in ore minerals, combined with other metals including sulfur, zinc, silver, gold, and copper. The most common ore mineral of lead is galena (mineral formula PbS).


Properties of lead: soft and malleable, relatively low melting point, blue-gray color when untarnished, corrosion resistant

What is lead used for?

Lead wasn't always considered dangerous and actually used to be utilized commonly for many purposes including ammunition and shot, cathode ray tubes, fishing weights, fuel additives, pigments in paints, pipes, building materials, solder and wheel weights.

Concerns about the harmful effects to the environment and human health have reduced or eliminated lead from many of these uses in modern times. However, lead is still the primary ingredient used to manufacture automotive batteries and is used for other industrial applications today.

Listen to this short (4.5 minute) segment of NPR’s All Things Considered, Before It Was Dangerous, Lead Was The Miracle Metal That We Loved, to hear a brief history of the uses of Pb.

Lead Processing

Once the lead ore minerals are mined, they must be processed in order to purify the lead and produce a material that is suitable for industrial uses. Lead ore processing starts with milling, which involves crushing and grinding the ore minerals, and then using a process called flotation to separate the crushed material. The crushed material is then sintered and smelted (both involve various degrees of heating) in a blast furnace to produce rough lead bullion. The video below (left) explains the processes of sintering and smelting. After smelting, the bullion goes through a process called refining, which involves the use of other chemicals and water to further purify the lead. The video below (right) shows the refining process as it worked in 1948 in a smelting and refining plant in Missouri.

Lead is also commonly processed for recycling. In fact, it is one of the most recycled metals. The lead in car batteries is fully recyclable and is sold back to the battery industry after processing, which uses it to make new batteries.

Many waste materials are generated as a result of lead processing including, blast furnace slag, lead-containing dust emitted by the blast furnace stack, wastewater containing lead and other metals, and others. Depending on how the plants handle these waste products, some lead-containing dust may accumulate downwind, settling onto surfaces in the landscape including soil, rooftops, roads, etc., and lead-contaminated water may pollute nearby streams, rivers, and groundwater. Lead does not biodegrade, or disappear over time, but remains in soils for thousands of years.

Lead Distribution in East Chicago, Indiana

The USS Lead Superfund site is in East Chicago, Indiana and includes the former USS Lead facility and nearby commercial, municipal, and residential areas. The U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery, Inc. (USS Lead) began operations in 1906. From 1920–1973, USS Lead operated as a primary Pb smelter, which involved processing and smelting of the mined ore, and refining of the Pb. In 1973, the facility was converted to secondary smelting, which included recovering Pb from scrap metal and automobile batteries. Waste from the smelting operations and on-site surface soils were heavily contaminated with Pb and other metals, as described in the previous section. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the USS Lead site to the National Priorities list (NPL) in 1992 but EPA did not list USS Lead as a Superfund NPL site until 2008. The site includes the former industrial facility and the West Calumet, Calumet, and East Calumet residential neighborhoods (see figure below). The site also includes another lead smelting and refining facility operated by the former Anaconda Lead Products and International Lead Refining Company (ILRC). ILRC processed lead bullion from 1911 to 1968 while Anaconda Lead Products manufactured white lead for use in paint products. After operations concluded in at the ILRC facility in 1968, the City of East Chicago received federal housing funds from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development to construct the WCHC which was opened in 1972.

The USS Lead Superfund site was divided into "operable units" based on how the land was used – residential versus industrial. Operable unit 1 (OU1) is a 322-acre residential area while Operable unit 2 (OU2) is the former USS lead facility on 151st Street (see map to right). The Environmental Protection Agency divided OU1 into three zones.


USS Lead Superfund Site Operable Units and DuPont Facility Map in East Chicago, Indiana (EPA, 2016)

Zone 1: The West Calumet Housing Complex and Carrie Gosh Elementary School

Zone 2: Calumet neighborhood

Zone 3: East Calumet neighborhood

Environmental Lead Data

Soil Contamination

Since the USS Lead plant ceased operations in 1985, soil Pb contamination on-site and within Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3 have been tested. Soil testing of residential properties in 2006 and 2011 found Pb levels high enough to require immediate remediation. Surface soil Pb levels for samples collected from 2014–2017 by the EPA show that average levels of Pb in surface soil was significantly higher in each neighborhood compared to background areas in East Chicago. Zone 1 generally has the highest levels followed by Zone 2 and Zone 3 (EPA, 2016). Sampling data maps can be found here.

Indoor Dust and Air Emissions

In 1985, when the USS Lead plant was still operating, measurements of lead in the air were reported. The quarterly average for air lead, 1/4 mile downwind of the plant, was 1.3 µg/m^3 . At the time, this value was just under the acceptable limit of 1.5 µg/m^3 set by the National Ambient Air Quality Standard. The acceptable limit has since been changed based on new knowledge of the health effects of lead. The current lead standard is 0.15 µg/m^3 (10x less than the previous standard).

Mobile air monitoring equipment (EPA, 2016).

Blood Lead Data

1990–1997 Blood Lead Data: 30.9% of the children living in all three Calumet neighborhoods had blood lead levels ≥ 10 µg/dL.

1998 ISDH/ASDR Exposure Investigation: 30% of children <6 years old in some Calumet neighborhoods had blood lead levels that were ≥ 10 µg/dL (compared to the 10.9% statewide at that time).

2005–2015 Blood Lead Data: A review of blood lead levels was done to describe trends in Pb levels of children living in the Calumet neighborhoods and compared them to the rest of East Chicago and the state of Indiana. Results show children had significantly higher instances of having blood Pb levels ≥ 5 µg/dL if in Zone 1 and ≥ 10 µg/dL if in Zone 1 or Zone 2. See figure below from a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Report of Historical Blood Lead Levels in East Chicago, Indiana Neighborhoods Impacted by Lead Smelters.

Lead in the Human Body

Lead can enter the human body via ingestion, inhalation, and absorption through the skin. Since lead was removed as a gasoline additive in the U.S., the primary pathways for lead into the body in the U.S. today are ingestion and inhalation. Typically this results from inhaling contaminated dust particles or by ingesting soils contaminated with lead.

Once lead has entered the body, it accumulates in three primary reservoirs: blood, soft tissues, and bone (see figure below).

Because lead atoms are similar in size to calcium and zinc, the body can use lead in place of those elements during normal biological processes. When this happens, Pb will build up in the body, lead to what we call lead poisoning.

Lead pathways and reservoirs in the human body.

Infographic explaining some of the potential negative effects of lead exposure on children. Image and content credit: CDC and the National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice.

Health Effects of Lead Poisoning in Children

Even slightly elevated levels of blood-lead in children can result in numerous health effects, including behavioral/learning problems (difficulty concentrating and hyperactivity), slowed growth, hearing problems, and more. Lead may also transfer from mother to fetus. In adults, lead can lead to cardiovascular, renal, and reproductive problems.

The current CDC reference blood-lead level is 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood (μg/dl). This means that children with a blood-lead level of 5 μg/dl or more, would be considered as having an elevated level of lead in their blood, and are at risk of negative effects. Despite the CDC reference, Indiana’s standard is 10 μg/dl, double that of the CDC and >14 times the U.S. national average of 0.7 μg/dl. Experts agree that there is no "safe" limit of blood-lead in children.

Normal childhood development involves frequent hand-to-mouth activities, and for children playing outdoors in lead contaminated environments, it is easy for them to become lead poisoned as they ingest soil particles. In soil, the EPA defines a soil lead hazard at 400 parts per million (ppm) or greater. In 1985, the soil in East Chicago was found to have > 1100 ppm of lead.

Children’s bodies absorb ~4–5 times as much lead as adults and are very sensitive to biological/chemical changes since they are in the stages of early growth and development. The introduction of poisons, such as lead, during this growth and development stage, may result in lifelong disabilities and other long term negative effects.

EPA sign advising children to not play in lead contaminated soil in East Chicago, IN (Chicago Tribune).

The Crime - Lead Hypothesis

In the 1930s, the U.S. introduced lead as an additive to gasoline. In the 1960s, violent crime rates began to rise with unexplained cause. Lead was removed as a gasoline additive (in the U.S.) in the 1970s. About two decades later, in the 1990s, the violent crime rates began to fall. These correlations and trends lead to some researchers to hypothesize that lead had something to do with the crime rates.

But why would there be a multi-decade offset between lead exposure and violent crime trends, if lead is a cause of increased crime rates? The theory, backed up now by numerous peer-reviewed studies (see dropdown below), is that lead exposure as a child can impair brain development such that exposed individuals have diminished impulse control later in life, contributing to an increased likelihood that they will engage in risky or even criminal behavior.

This phenomenon is not just contained to areas such as East Chicago or New York – the trends are seen across the U.S. (see figure below) as well as worldwide. The studies also are not limited to one scientific discipline. Neurological studies of people who were lead-exposed as children show grey matter loss in areas of the brain associated with impulse control, emotional regulation, and decision making. Longitudinal studies (where children are monitored over the course of decades) show that people who were lead-exposed as children are more likely to make risky decisions, including criminal activity. Population studies show that these trends are not confined to individuals, but are seen across swathes of the population, from groups as small as neighborhoods to entire countries.

No theory for the trends in violent crime has been definitive, not even the lead-crime hypothesis. However, the evidence for the theory has been mounting steadily since a paper by Rick Nevin published in 2000 first called attention to the relationship between childhood lead-exposure and criminal activity in the following decades. One thing that is not debated is that lead exposure impairs brain development in children and leads to numerous adverse health effects in both children and adults.

Studies about the Lead-Crime Hypothesis

Trends in average blood-lead levels of U.S. preschool children compared to violent crimes per 100,000 people in the U.S. Note the offset years on the x-axis. Source: Mother Jones (2018)

Stakeholders

Timeline and Organizations Involved

Source: Mayor Anthony Copeland of East Chicago

East Chicago City Officials and ECHA

Despite the City of East Chicago and East Chicago Housing Authority officials' attendance at EPA meetings on lead contamination, the ECHA director and city officials claimed ignorace of the contamination until 2016, when they decided to perform a test on soils and found unprecedented levels of lead contamination. The Mayor of East Chicago, Anthony Copeland, claims to have acknowledged and worked with the EPA's discovery of lead contamination from the onset, but the EPA was the first to reach out to WCHC residents while the City of East Chicago remained largely silent until the complex was demolished.

Source: James Brosher, I.U.

ISDH and IDEM

The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) worked with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry to confirm high blood lead levels in the children of Calumet, but did not enact remediation of contaminated sites until years later. In court, both ISDH and IDEM claimed to be immune from the requirement to inform the public about contamination. They lost their case because the law requires them to notify citizens about toxic waste .

Source: Vice News and HBO, 2016.

West Calumet Housing Complex Residents

The residents of the West Calumet Housing Complex (WHCH) were exposed to high levels of lead contamination without their knowledge. The majority of the residents were people of color in low-income/poverty brackets. who were placed in WCHC through a housing relief program. From 1990–1998, approximately thirty percent of children tested in Calumet neighborhoods had elevated blood-lead levels. In 2015, residents were forced to vacate their homes.

Source: blvdone

EPA: Environmental Protection Agency

In the 1980s, the EPA discovered lead contamination around the former USS Lead Product Facility and put the word out about lead and arsenic contamination to West Calumet residents and other attendees, including East Chicago and ECHA officials. In the late 2000s, the EPA added the USS Lead Product Facility and surrounding areas to the National Priorities List and remediated some areas with contaminated soil. Continued testing in the 2010s led to the eventual demolition of the WCHC and the removal of the site from the National Priorities List.

Source: jarun011

ATSDR: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Concluded that high blood-lead levels in residents at the West Calumet Housing Complex were likely caused by the contaminated soil on which the complex was built .

Source: whitcomberd

USHUD: United States Department of Housing and Urban Development

Although the EPA added the USS lead site (which included the West Calumet community) to the National Priorities List in 2009, HUD officials claimed to not have known about WCHC’s lead exposure until 2016. According to a 2021 Executive Report from the U.S. Office of Inspector General, "HUD and other agencies missed multiple opportunities to identify site contamination at WCHC. As a result, WCHC residents continued living in unsafe conditions for decades, and inadequate oversight led to the lead poisoning of children in WCHC."

Ethics and Equity

While the lead refining and smelting industry can provide much needed jobs for some people, issues of lead contamination and poisoning have long standing negative effects for those in close proximity to the sites future. When jobs or economics are valued above health and environmental protections, the result can be a legacy of uninhabitable land and widespread illness. Lead contamination in West Calumet is a keen example of this legacy.

Black residents make up ten percent of the Indiana population, but account for fifty-one percent of public housing residents and public housing voucher requesters. Since black women make, on average and with the same training and education, 62 cents for every white man’s dollar, and black men make 87 cents for every white man’s dollar, black people and people of color in general are more likely to need public housing due to this wage disparity. Public housing that is located in an environmentally undesirable area puts people of color at higher risk of exposure to hazardous waste and unhealthy living conditions.

The waste from current lead plants, as well as the legacy lead left behind (in pipes, paint, metals, et.), continues to disproportionately impact people of color in public housing districts. The City of East Chicago and the United States Housing and Urban Development Department did not give the residents of these districts adequate and fair warning of the lead contamination at the West Calumet Housing Complex.

References

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. (2018, August 16). Historical Blood Lead Levels in East Chicago, Indiana Neighborhoods Impacted by Lead Smelters. Https://Www.Atsdr.Cdc.Gov. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/USSmelterandLeadRefinery/US_Smelter_Lead_Refinery_HC_2018-508.pdf

AP News (2018, April 3). Demolition begins at contaminated Indiana housing complex. The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/2ed4cb74330c4960a893a941f38e54e8

Copeland, A. (n.d.). Letter from the Mayor. Letter from the Mayor | East Chicago, IN. https://www.eastchicago.com/183/Letter-from-the-Mayor

Indiana Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights [IACUSCCR]. (2020). Environmental Injustice : Lead Poisoning in Indiana.

Janzen, N. (2017, January 19). Pence Administration Denied East Chicago Emergency Declaration. Lakeshore Public Radio. https://www.lakeshorepublicradio.org/post/pence-administration-denied-east-chicago-emergency-declaration#stream/0

Landrigan, P. J., Schechter, C. B., Lipton, J. M., Fahs, M. C., & Schwartz, J. (2002). Environmental pollutants and disease in American children: estimates of morbidity, mortality, and costs for lead poisoning, asthma, cancer, and developmental disabilities. Environmental health perspectives, 110(7), 721–728. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.02110721

Papanikolaou, N. C., Hatzidaki, E. G., Belivanis, S., Tzanakakis, G. N., & Tsatsakis, A. M. (2005). Lead toxicity update. A brief review. Medical Science Monitor, 11(10), 329–336.

Reuters. (n.d.). Looking for Lead. Retrieved July 2, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/investigates/graphics/lead-water/en/

Rumruay. (n.d.). Lead Poisoning Symptoms [Graphic illustration]. Adobe Stock. https://stock.adobe.com/search?load_type=search&native_visual_search=&similar_content_id=&is_recent_search=&search_type=usertyped&k=lead+contamination&asset_id=435204668

Saenz, E. (2021, March 31). Decades of "Missed Opportunities" Exposed Multiple Generations of East Chicago Residents to Lead Contamination, Federal Report Finds. Indiana Environmental Reporter. https://www.indianaenvironmentalreporter.org/posts/decades-of-missed-opportunities-exposed-multiple-generations-of-east-chicago-residents-to-lead-contamination-federal-report-finds

Skerfving, S., & Bergdahl, I. A. (2007). Lead. In Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals (pp. 599–643). Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-369413-3.X5052-6

Thiele, R. (2018, November 14). November Meetings, Public Comments on East Chicago Cleanup. WFYI Public Media. https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/november-meetings-public-comments-on-east-chicago-cleanup

US CDC. (2021). Blood Lead Levels in Children | Lead | CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/blood-lead-levels.htm

US Department of Health and Human Resources. History of Child Blood Lead Levels in East Chicago, n.d https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/USSmelterandLeadRefinery/US_Smelter_Lead_Refinery_HC_2018-508.pdf

US EPA. (1985). Inspection Report of Hammond Lead and USS Lead Refining Soil Survey.

US EPA. (2020). ACE: Biomonitoring - Lead. https://www.epa.gov/americaschildrenenvironment/ace-biomonitoring-lead

US EPA. (2021). Learn about Lead. https://www.epa.gov/lead/learn-about-lead#effects

US EPA, OECA. “Case Summary: EPA Agreement Will Start Clean up of Contaminated Soil at the U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery Superfund Site.” Www.epa.gov, 15 Dec. 2015, www.epa.gov/enforcement/case-summary-epa-agreement-will-start-clean-contaminated-soil-us-smelter-and-lead. Accessed 28 July 2021.


US EPA, REG 05. “USS Lead Superfund Site.” Www.epa.gov, 7 Sept. 2016, www.epa.gov/uss-lead-superfund-site. Accessed 28 July 2021.

US HUD. (2021, February 14). HUD inspector general report: Contaminated sites pose potential health risk to residents at HUD-funded properties. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/hud-inspector-general-report-contaminated-sites-pose-potential-health-risk-to-residents-at-hud-funded-properties/5144845c-a939-411f-b8b6-9eb31464f8ad/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2

Vice News. (2016, December 9). These Indiana Residents Were Forced To Vacate Their Homes Due To High Lead Levels (HBO) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLArUVcKiwU

World Health Organization. (2019, August 23). Lead poisoning and health. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health