Lead discovered near Elliot Hall is no shock

On July 13, 2007, Keene State College commissioned a professional industrial hygiene service, Covino Environmental Associates Inc., to analyze soil samples taken from around the Elliot Center for lead content.

The study revealed that in and around the area used by the Child Development Center for their playground registered between 124.71 and 126.80 parts per million (ppm). State legislation requires soils to be abated, or purified, when lead levels equal or exceed 5,000 ppm.

While KSC is planning on undergoing another abatement program this summer, this is not the first time that lead has been discovered in the soil by the CDC playground. In 1993, MARCOR Environmental Inc. was contracted for $12,275 to remove the lead paint from 58 windows, an entry way and the pillars on Elliot Hall. While solving the problem at hand, was this really as effective a solution as it could have been if we are once again facing the same problem now?

While practically every building on campus has traces of lead paint remaining, the fact that the children entrusted to the CDC are allowed to play in an area where potentially harmful lead levels have been detected not once, but twice, is alarming.

In recent years, the medical and educational communities have become more passionate about spreading awareness of lead poisoning.

Doctors, public health officials and even property inspectors have argued that lead can cause a virtual cornucopia of problems, including but not limited to: reduced intelligence, behavioral disorders, gastrointestinal pain, brain damage and death.

Will the new lead abatement program being conducted over the summer reduce the risk of lead poisoning to these children once and for all? We can only hope.