Colorado has no authority to regulate aviation emissions including aircraft powered by lead fuel. Nor does the state have any direct say over aircraft or aircraft engines, which falls under the purview of the Federal Aviation Administration, Westminster City Councilors were told Monday.
A leaded aviation fuel study of 12 airports in Colorado – which includes Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport – did find that children living within two miles of an airport had slightly higher average blood lead levels than other children in Colorado, Ned Calonge, chief medical officer for the Colorado Department Public Health and Environment, told councilors.
However, those levels were below the Centers for Disease Control “reference value,” Calonge said. According to the CDC, a reference value identifies children with higher levels of lead in their blood compared to most children.
Calonge told the council no single airport out of the 12 that were studied stood out for driving the results of the study. The CDPHE does oversee testing programs for drinking water in childcare centers, and schools that serve grades preschool through eighth grade, he said.
Calonge came at the request of city councilors who have heard concerns from residents about the leaded aviation fuel by certain small planes operating out of RMMA, according to a staff report.
Lead is toxic to humans and can get into bodies when someone breathes or swallows something that has lead in it or on it, Calonge told councilors.
Children under the age of 6 are at the highest risk of health impacts from lead. Where they live, if they have a family member who is exposed to lead at work or through hobbies and if they are recently immigrated, also makes them even more susceptible, Calonge said.
CDC’s study of airport aviation fuel did not say anything about the amount of lead in the environment around the airports in the study. Nor did it say anything about the individual health of children beyond their test results, he said.
Call for more local testing
Councilor Amber Hott pressed Calonge on why the state is not doing more to alert families under the flight path of the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport about the potential dangers of lead in airplanes. “We won’t know the impact of the RMMA unless we have specific testing done there,” Hott said.
“You need to go out to our communities and letters need to go out to schools because parents need to know they are living close to the airport and their children…have increased lead. They need to be tested,” Hott said.
Studies of lead contamination have been hampered by the low rates of blood testing in Colorado, Calonge said. Only 23% of Medicaid children receive a test for 12 or 24 months in 2022. Only 7% of children under six across Colorado were tested in 2022.
Calonge agreed there are testing gaps that need to be addressed. “CDPHE seeks to do more to increase testing rates in Colorado,” Calonge said.
State lawmakers appear ready to bolster lead-level testing by possibly approving $1.2 million to enhance testing capacity in Colorado, he said.
The new funding would allow a focus on areas with the highest risk of lead exposure and the lowest testing rates. The funds would also expand home investigation for more testing for at-risk children, Calonge said.
Hott said the CDPHE needs to focus on providing information to both healthcare providers and families. “Our communities really need education as well,” she said.