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Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning

Toolkit for Communities in the NYS Finger Lakes Region

Lead is easy to ignore, but it affects many aspects of a community negatively. Children exposed to lead have more problem behaviors, lower IQs, and lower lifetime earnings. They are more likely to drop out of school and more likely to commit crime. Local collaboration can bring about the changes needed to protect children and pregnant women from lead’s irreversible health effects. Here are ways your community can work together to prevent childhood lead poisoning locally. Also see the Finger Lakes Asset Map which provides detail on the need for lead poisoning prevention in each county and identifies some of the partners who can connect to implement the Toolkit.

Overall Ideal:

1. Form a local lead poisoning prevention coalition
2. Keep the focus on protecting children and pregnant women from lead exposure
3. Identify representatives/champions from the various sectors of your community (public health, medical, education, municipal/housing, neighborhood associations, community advocacy agencies, legal aid, business/contractor, property owners/ managers) who will commit to meeting regularly with the coalition and serve as a liaison with others in their sector
4. Agree on goals and work together to effectively reduce lead exposure locally

Specific Ideas:

• Public Education and Awareness
  • Work with your local health department to better understand the extent of lead poisoning in your community
  • Determine target audiences and create effective messages
  • Work with neighborhood organizations to do specific outreach
  • Raise awareness about lead sources (paint/dust, soil, water, consumer products)
  • NYS Requirements to test kids at 1 & 2 and whenever they are at risk
• Multiply efforts of Local Health Department Lead Program
  • Train all home visiting staff (Maternal/Child Health, CPS, DSS, Foster Care, Child Care, Early Intervention, Community Health Workers)
  • Develop and share aggregate data
  • Educate partners & community on how to use data
  • Collaborate with NYS DOH District Office Sanitarians if in a county served by them
  • Collaborate with your NYS Healthy Neighborhoods Program if in your county
  • Collaborate with local colleges and universities that have medical, nursing, public health or environmental programs
  • Apply for grants to assist in lead hazard reduction:
    • Local foundations (see “Foundations” tab in the Finger Lakes Asset Map)
    • NYS and Federal

• Health Care providers – increase screening/testing rates
  • Use public health detailing to improve processes and make sure all children are tested when needed
  • Implement point of care testing
  • Learn about incentives provided by Managed Care and Insurers.
  • Utilize NYS Regional Lead Resource Centers – for CME, annual in-service – Educate medical residents, NPs, PAs, nurses
  • Medicaid Health Homes
  • For adults with exposure to lead utilize NYS Occupational Health Clinics

• Schools and Childcares – understand how children are exposed and assist those affected
  • Test school and childcare buildings and water
  • Educate parents
  • Work with your NYS Child Care Resource and Referral Agency to educate child care providers (can adapt Finger Lakes Lead Coalition childcare toolkit). Use NYS DOH’s What Child Care Providers Need to Know About Lead
  • Work with local Head Start organizations
  • Share interventions for children exposed to lead with schools, preschools EI, CSE, & CPSE

• Municipalities
  • Understand Lead safe work practices/RRP/lead abatement
  • Identify RRP and other lead certified contractors locally and determine how many additional are needed
  • Consider Lead Pipe Replacement lslr-collaborative.org/
  • Create policies for proactive housing inspection
  • Educate code enforcement officers – see Finger Lakes Lead Coalition fact sheet
  • Work with your HUD Approved Housing Counseling Agency to educate renters and homebuyers about lead
  • Work with your Housing Authority to make sure public and Section 8 housing is lead safe
  • Provide lead classes with continuing education units for Code Enforcement Officers
  • Change building permits to check for lead certification/license for work on pre-1978 homes (examples)
  • Joint inspections with city/town/village and county lead program staff; develop and share a housing database
  • Micro-target by neighborhood
  • Find no cost/low cost solutions that get results
  • Bring in Local Officials as partners, providing maps and data by neighborhood, and publicize/recognize their efforts

• Legal/Courts
  • Legal Aid for tenants and homeowners
  • Develop seminars and bench books for judges

• Contractors & Hardware/Paint Stores
  • Offer lead safe work practice/RRP training
  • Supply packages for lead safe work practice
  • Develop HEPA vacuum loan or group purchases
  • Partner with local colleges, trade associations

• Landlords
  • Offer landlord association seminars on paint stabilization, window replacement, and lead safe work practice training
  • Get %$ off on bulk replacement windows
  • Create a HEPA vacuum loan program
  • Negotiate for free or reduced clearance dust testing
  • Connect with local grant funded lead hazard reduction programs

Credit/References:

• Katrina Smith Korfmacher PhD – also see Bridging Silos – Collaborating for Environmental Health and Justice in Urban Communities, 2019 https://mitpress.mit.edu/contributors/katrina-smith-korfmacher
• Cathe Bulwinkle – ideas from experience in Utica & Oneida County NY – shared at CDC Lead & Health Homes Training Center in St. Louis – May 2017
• National Center for Healthy Housing – Preventing Lead Exposure in Children: Blueprint for Action, 2014
  https://nchh.org/resource-library/report_preventing-lead-exposure-in-u.s.-children_a-blueprint-for-action.pdf

• Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning – LEAD SAFE MONROE COUNTY A Plan to Eliminate Childhood Lead Poisoning in Monroe County, January 2007

Partners:

This toolkit made thanks to: