Children poisoned by lead on US Army bases as hazards ignored

FORT BENNING, Georgia: Army Colonel J Cale Brown put his life on the line in two tours of duty in Afghanistan, earning a pair of Bronze Stars for his service.

In between those deployments, Brown received orders to report to Fort Benning, the sprawling Georgia base that proudly describes itself as the century-old home of the US infantry. He was pleased. His wife, Darlena, was pregnant with their second child, and the Browns owned a home in the area. Their 10-month-old son, John Cale Jr, was a precocious baby, babbling a dozen words and exploring solid foods.

Cale´s duties as a battalion commander required him to live on base. So instead of moving into their own house, in 2011 the Browns rented a place inside Fort Benning. The 80-year-old white stucco home had hosted generations of officers. Like most family housing on US bases today, the home wasn't owned and operated by the military. It was managed by Villages of Benning, a partnership between two private companies and the US Army, whose website beckons families to "enjoy the luxuries of on-post living. "The symptoms began suddenly. At 18 months, JC would awake screaming.

He began refusing food, stopped responding to his name and lost most of his words. "He was disappearing into an isolated brain," Darlena recalls. For nearly a year, doctors probed: Was it colic? Autism? Ear infections? Then, in late 2012, came a call from JC´s pediatrician: He had high levels of lead in his blood.

When Darlena told Villages of Benning of his poisoning, contractors ordered home testing. The results: At least 113 spots in the home had lead paint, including several peeling or crumbling patches, requiring $26,150 in lead abatement. Villages of Benning moved the Browns into another old house next door. The heavy metal had stunted JC's brain, medical records reviewed by Reuters show. At age two, he was diagnosed with a developmental disorder caused by lead.