Stakeholder Meeting with Professor Marya Lieberman and Dr. Heidi Beidinger

Stakeholder Meeting with Professor Marya Lieberman and Dr. Heidi Beidinger

After meeting with two experts in the field of lead study and remediation within the South Bend community, Professor Marya Lieberman and Dr. Heidi Beidinger, Tech Team was able to learn a lot about the sources and dangers of lead poisoning.  

Dr. Lieberman and Dr. Beidinger introduced the portable x-ray (XRF) fluorometer to our team members. The XRF is a portable instrument that uses x-rays to determine the chemical composition of various materials including solids, liquids, and powders. Using the XRF, researchers can test for the composition of dust samples collected on sites and determine if lead is present. The XRF is efficient and effective due to its portability and accuracy; however, Dr. Lieberman and Dr. Beidinger’s team aims to develop testing methods that are more applicable to the South Bend community.  

Their research has included the development of affordable lead sampling kits. Lead testing can be as simple as taking a double-sided piece of sticky tape to a wall and seeing if any paint comes off. If paint does come off, then there is a potential for lead poisoning and the paint should be tested in a lab. However, getting the paint to a lab or even trusting the validity of such a simple test are not easy hurdles to overcome. The kits developed by ND LIT  are extremely valuable at identifying sources of lead within homes and they are easy to use, including step-by-step instructions. Additionally, allowing residents to control the testing within their own home makes information about prevention and remediation as accessible, convenient, and non-invasive as possible.

We went on to address how to assess the magnitude of the dangers of lead poisoning on the South Bend community. Prof. Lieberman and Dr. Beidinger told us that one of the focuses of their study and outreach has been the involvement of healthcare providers. Both women agree that it would be beneficial to implement a law that mandates the testing of lead levels in children, especially if a child is under the age of seven because that is when they are most at risk. In fact, the states that have regulated the testing of children have seen the most improvement in lead poisoning levels; Maryland, which now requires testing for children of one and two years of age, has seen a 98% decrease in child lead-poisoning cases from 1993. Other states such as Massachusetts and Maine have also implemented required testing for children under the age of six. Additionally, in Massachusetts, if a child lives in a high-risk area for lead-poisoning, it is required that they be tested more frequently. These states have seen significant drops in cases of poisoning and drastically improved the health of many communities.

While introducing the present technology for lead testing and the work that has been conducted in South Bend, Dr. Lieberman and Dr. Beidinger also told us that lead elimination is a task that is extremely costly and requires time and cooperation from the local community. We learned that mulching is only effective when the lead outside is covered. However, plants such as sunflowers are highly effective for phytoremediation of lead in soil. Our experts suggested that mulching and gardening might be a way to detoxify gardens.    

They also provide multiple possibilities for us to intervene with the people at risk of lead poisoning and provide them with information of reducing lead level at home. For example, giving brochures about the danger of lead poisoning during field visits to pregnant women, because they have a larger chance to have young children in their house too. School education can be another efficient way to spread the information. Providing children with take-home lead sampling kits may be an effective way at distributing and re-obtaining the kits.

During our first meeting with Marya and Heidi, they explained a lot of the research they have already done on the South Bend lead problem. They certainly have extensive research on lead-contaminated soil, and if this is one of the areas we decide to focus on for our project, we can build off of what they already have. We could perhaps ask them for some guidance as to what areas are more likely to have lead and in this way we do not waste of our time gathering lots of completely new data. Another major topic in our discussion was their work on developing lead testing kits. There were certain issues about the kits that they expressed, such as people not having an incentive to actually carry out the testing and also the large size of the box. As a team, we could perhaps suggest ideas that could potentially fix the problems with the testing kits. Finally, Marya and Heidi explained to us some of their ideas for parents of newborn babies to not just be aware of the lead problem in their homes, but to feel motivated to act upon it. Some of their ideas included a take-home kit for parents with lots of information on the lead problem, perhaps even including a pacifier or diapers with a message reminding parents of the seriousness of this problem for their children.

We are working towards the same goal of solving the South Bend lead problem, so partnering with Marya and Heidi would benefit both groups. They can help us by lending equipment, in particular the X-Ray Fluorometer used to measure the concentration of lead particles in a specific area, and by providing lab space so we can analyze our results.  Most importantly, they can help us by sharing their knowledge about the lead problem in South Bend, which is invaluable to us. Although Marya and Heidi are the experts in this area, we hope to help them as well. We have many Computer Scientists on our team this year, so we can use our technological skills to assist in app building or video making to spread the word about the lead problem and their research.  They also spoke about implementing a pickup / drop-off system for their lead testing kits, and having twelve extra engineering brains working on solving this would be beneficial to them. We hope to obtain useful results in our testing that will hopefully build on their research.