Childhood lead poisoning is an entirely preventable disease. Once contracted, however, its effects are irreversible. The following is information that everyone needs to know about lead.

Lead Safety Background

• Children at the greatest risk for lead poisoning live in older homes, generally built before 1950, with poor maintenance.
• Children are typically poisoned by exposure to lead-contaminated household dust. Lead contamination comes primarily from old lead-based paint that is deteriorating or rubbed off high-friction surfaces such as windows and doors. Exterior lead-based paint that chips off walls and dust and soil contaminated by paint or leaded gasoline are also a primary source of lead poisoning.
• Lead dust attaches to children's hands and toys, which young children put in their mouths.
• Lead dust ingestion affects brain and organ development.
• Exposures to lead in childhood can cause learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and at very high levels, seizures, coma, and even death. (CDC)

Preventing Lead Exposure

There are a few easy ways to significantly reduce the risk of childhood lead poisoning:

• Frequently wash hands, pacifiers, toys and any other items that might go in a child's mouth.
• When you are remodeling, renovating or repairing your home, make sure your painter, contractor or landlord understands lead-safe work practices.
• Use a HEPA vacuum and frequently wipe window sills and doorways with a damp cloth.
• Have you child's blood screened for lead by one year of age. Pregnant women should also be screened.
• Wipe and test dust from horizontal surfaces. For an at-home lead dust test kit, visit http://www.prolabinc.com
• Be aware of where your children play. Even if your home is lead-safe, a care-giver's or friend's home may not be.
• Feed your children food high in iron, calcium and vitamin C. Foods high in vitamins can reduce absorption of lead into your child's blood.

Childhood Lead Poisoning Statistics

• Approximately 310,000 children living in the United States have blood lead levels that are high enough to cause irreversible damage to their health. (CDC)
• In the past decade, the prevalence of elevated blood lead levels has decreased by 68%, including a 72% drop among African-American youth, though blood lead levels remain high for children in minority and low-income populations. (CDC)
• Of all U.S. children under six who have dangerously high blood lead levels, nearly two-thirds are enrolled in Medicaid. (CDC)

History of Lead in the U.S.

• Lead was used in interior paint at the beginning of the 20th Century because of its durability. It maintained its popularity through the first half of the century.
• Though industry consensus standards limited the use of lead pigments in the 1950's, paint containing lead was not banned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission until 1978. In 1996, the Clean Air Act banned the sale of leaded fuel for use in on-road vehicles.
• In 1997, President Bill Clinton called for the effective elimination of childhood lead poisoning from the United States by 2010.

Facts About Childhood Lead Poisoning

• Exposures to lead in childhood can cause learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and at very high levels, seizures, coma and even death. (CDC)
• While adults absorb about 11 percent of lead reaching the digestive tract, children may absorb 30% to 75%. (FDA)
• Since the late 1970s, children's average blood lead levels have decreased more than 80%, but the problem of childhood lead poisoning remains concentrated on a local level. (CDC)
• The prevalence of elevated blood lead levels among children living in pre-1946 low-income housing is as much as 30 times greater than that of middle-income children living in newer housing. (CDC)
• In the last decade, of all U.S. children under six who had dangerously high blood lead levels, almost 85% were enrolled in Medicaid. (CDC)
• Nearly 22% of African-American children and living in older houses and apartments have elevated blood lead levels. (CDC)
• Mexican American children are also at increased risk - 13% of those living in older housing have blood lead levels over 10 mcg/dL, in contrast to less than 6% of non-Hispanic white children living in such housing. (CDC)

Initiatives that are making a difference

• In New Jersey, Governor Jim McGreevey signed lead hazard control legislation into law, providing $10 million per year in state grants and loans to property owners with lead hazards in need of remediation. Governor McGreevey has also begun a statewide initiative giving every new parent a lead dust test kit as part of an aggressive primary prevention strategy.
• In Rhode Island, State Senator Thomas Izzo sponsored the Lead Hazard Control and Mitigation Act, which guarantees safe housing for pregnant women and children under six. The law also gives tenants the right to sue their landlords for failure to control lead hazards.
• In California, Governor Gray Davis signed a provision that will make lead hazards a violation of state housing laws, giving the state health department the authority to collect data and making it easier for health officials to identify, treat, and prevent childhood lead poisoning.
• In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino has set 2005 as a city-wide goal to eliminate childhood lead poisoning. By emphasizing practical, proactive, results-oriented approaches, Boston has already reduced childhood lead poisoning by 54% in three years.
• In Maryland, childhood lead poisoning has decreased more than 80% since 1995, when state law began to require that property-owners implement lead-hazard reduction measures.
• In Baltimore, Mayor Martin O'Malley identified childhood lead poisoning prevention as a priority public health issue in 2000. A plan for a two-phase coordinated initiative involving city and state agencies was developed immediately and is underway.

If you want more information about lead prevention, or suspect your house may contain lead hazards, please call HUD's hotline at 1-800-LA-4 LEAD.