© 1992 Kira Carrillo Corser

Ariel

David Zellerman has owned a construction and remodelling company for 14 years.
Since his daughter, Ariel, was lead poisoned by water from their refrigerator door,
David is concerned about the dangers of lead poisoning. He now specializes
in lead paint abatement (removal), making sure he and his employees wear
lead dust filter masks and disposable Tyvec suits.

Ariel's blood lead level was 27 when they caught it; it's now down to 11. (According
to the Center for Disease Control, the danger level is over 12. Normal is 0.)

When Ariel was a year old, her blood tests showed
she was anemic. We gave her iron for a month, no use,
she'd been lead poisoned.

It took us six weeks to find the source of the poison.
The County tested the paint, they tested the soil,
all the water in the sinks, the cribs, everything came
up negative. Finally someone at the county asked, Do they
have a reverse osmosis drinking system? The poison
came from the level of lead in our 'pure' water.

Of all the places in the house for the plumber to use lead solder,
that's where he used it: in the copper plumbing and piping
underneath the floor, leading to the icemaker and water dispenser.
Day after day, for nine months, we'd made Ariel's formula
from powdered form, mixing it with water from the refrigerator door.

I'm very very very angry at the plumber. He had no right
to take the 4 or 5 IQ points from Ariel. He had no right.
He shouldn't have had lead solder on his truck. It was banned
for drinking water years ago. The other thing that really gets me
is the legal system. Why is no one notifying the other people
whose houses he worked on at the same time he worked on mine?

- Frances Payne Adler © 1993