More lead

Last week when the city closed Markey Park for lead remediation, we pointed to this NPR story from 2006 featuring Professor Howard Mielke's work identifying and mapping high concentrations of lead in the New Orleans soil.

Today, the Times-Picayune publishes a better version of Mielke's map complete with soil consentrations listed by census tract.

From Mark Schleifstien's front-page article.

Because of its large number of older homes and more compact urban area, New Orleans has historically had a high number of children with elevated blood lead levels. In 2004, a year before Hurricane Katrina, 13.8 percent of all children tested in the city had levels above 10 micrograms per deciliter, the level considered lead poisoning by the CDC. In 2009, that level had dropped dramatically to 5.3 percent. The exact reason for the drop is unknown, although research by Mielke and others indicates that sediment washed into the city during Hurricane Katrina reduced lead levels in soils in flooded areas.

Not sure what to make of that given this a few paragraphs later.

Lead was banned from paints in the United States in 1977. New Orleans’ housing stock, however, contains a huge number of homes that predate the ban. After Katrina, improper sanding of lead-based paints has added to the lead dust throughout the city, Mielke said.

Is there more lead dust now or less?