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Dust From Father's Job Poisons Children

Lead is often found in older houses, but not always.

Imagine being a father who accidently poisons his own children simply by playing with them after coming home from work.

The Cincinnati man worked at an electronic scrap recycling facility. Elena Page is with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health at the Centers for Disease Control. She says this one example can serve as a lesson for many people.  

"It's just very hard to get lead off of you, just normal soap and water doesn't necessarily clean it off," Page says.

The report says the father did not have personal protective equipment at work. Instead, he wore his own clothes to work and home. And once home, there was visible dust in his hair that The man's one and two-year-old children often touched.

"Do you have kids? When my kids were one and two, they couldn't wait to see me when I came home they were all over me. At that age they love you so much, they come.. and that's exactly what happened," Page says.

The children reported 18 and 14 micrograms per deciliter of lead in their blood - enough to cause long-term brain damage.

Page says people who work in factories, such as battery-recycling factories, and workers repairing or remodeling older houses should leave contaminated clothes and shoes at work, and shower before returning home.

Story by Sarah Jane Tribble