National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week

October 20-26, 2013 is National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week

Lead is highly toxic and can harm your child’s brain, causing lifelong learning and behavior problems. Children under age six are most at risk for lead poisoning, but there are also significant health risks for adults, newborns and pregnant women too.

Lead dust in the home is caused by chipping, peeling, flaking or deteriorating lead-based paint. Lead dust is not the same as household dust. Lead dust is often invisible, heavier, and stickier. It can be present in even the cleanest of homes.

When lead dust is ingested or inhaled, even in miniscule amounts, it can cause significant and irreversible brain damage as well as other health problems. Lead dust equivalent of only three granules of sugar can begin to poison a child.

If your home was built before 1978, lead paint may still be on the walls, doors, windows and sills.

The City of South Lake Tahoe’s Lead Safe Tahoe team is working to identify houses and apartments within city limits that have lead-based paint hazards. Once identified and qualified, the team works with Lead Safe certified and licensed contractors to mitigate the risks and make dwellings safe for occupants.

Learn more about the City’s free Lead Hazard Control program at CityofSLT.us/LeadSafeTahoe or call (530) 542-6011.

Lead Poisoning
How to Reduce the Risk

Lead poisoning affects an estimated 442,000 children younger than age six annually in the United States. Lead is highly toxic and can harm your child’s brain, causing lifelong learning and behavior problems. Children under age six are most at risk for lead poisoning, but there are also significant health risks for adults, newborns and pregnant women too.

Lead dust in the home is caused by chipping, peeling, flaking or deteriorating lead-based paint. Lead dust is not the same as household dust. Lead dust is often invisible, heavier, and stickier and exists in even the cleanest of homes.

When lead dust is ingested or inhaled, even in miniscule amounts, it can cause significant and irreversible brain damage as well as other health problems. Lead dust equivalent of only three granules of sugar can begin to poison a child.

The Risks
• Children who are lead poisoned are 7 times more likely to drop out of school and 6 times more likely to become involved in the juvenile justice system.
• Lead exposure can affect nearly every system in the body. Learning disabilities that can affect children who have been lead poisoned include: violent, aggressive behavior; speech delays; Attention Deficit Disorder; hyperactivity; diminished IQ; hearing and memory problems; and reduced motor control and balance. It can also cause nervous system and kidney damage, as well as decreased muscle and bone growth. In more rare instances, high levels of lead can cause severe mental disabilities, convulsions, coma or even death.
• Lead poisoning is also harmful to adults. Even low levels of lead can pose many dangers including high blood pressure and hypertension, fertility problems, digestive problems, nerve disorders, memory and concentration problems, muscle and joint pain.
• Pregnant women and women of child-bearing age are also at increased risk, because lead ingested by the mother can cross the placenta and affect the unborn fetus. Newborn babies are also at risk to lead-based paint hazards.

The symptoms of lead poisoning are not easy to detect, but their effects are long-lasting. Because lead exposure often occurs with no obvious symptoms, it frequently goes unrecognized.

Kids under 6 are at greatest risk, since their brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead, and children’s growing bodies absorb more lead. You can’t tell if a child is lead poisoned just by looking.

Symptoms may include:
• Headaches
• Muscle and joint weakness or pain
• Excessive tiredness or lethargy
• Behavioral problems or irritability
• Difficulty concentrating
• Loss of appetite
• Metallic taste in the mouth
• Abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting
• Constipation

Sometimes there are no symptoms.

Symptoms of lead poisoning are often mistaken for other common illnesses like a cold or flu. The best way to find out is to get a blood test from a pediatrician.

Children living in older homes and apartments are unknowingly poisoned when lead-based paint deteriorates or is disturbed through remodeling efforts or improper sanding, scraping or heating. Toxic dust is also formed when painted surfaces bump or rub together, such as when windows and doors are opened and closed. The dust settles on window sills, walls, doors, floors, exterior surfaces and dirt. From there it can easily get on children’s hands or toys and into their mouths. As little as an evenly dust-covered piece of 8 ½” x 11” piece of paper will poison a 1,500 square foot house or apartment and will fail inspection.

The City’s Lead Safe Tahoe team is diligently working to identify houses and apartments within the City of South Lake Tahoe that have lead-based paint hazards. Once identified and qualified, the team works with Lead Safe certified and licensed contractors to mitigate the risks and make dwellings safe for occupants.

If your home was built before 1978, lead paint may still be on the walls, doors, windows and sills.

When paint remains intact or encased behind paneling or siding, it does not present an immediate hazard; however, when lead-based paint begins to deteriorate, it’s a serious health risk. It’s a risk that the City of South Lake Tahoe’s “Lead Safe Tahoe” program is working to mitigate in homes and apartments within the city limits.

“We are one of the smallest cities in the country to receive a Lead Hazard Control grant from HUD,” said Janine Green, Lead Safe Tahoe Program Coordinator. “The lead mitigation work we are doing is greatly improving the health and quality of living for residents and their children. It is truly an amazing program, and the best part is it costs nothing to participate for qualified residents.”

About Lead Safe Tahoe:
Lead Safe Tahoe is a program funded by the federal government.

The program offers grants to qualified participants which cover eligible costs to:

• Test for lead paint hazards. A trained professional will use a range of methods when checking the home, including:
o Visual inspection of paint condition and location
o A portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) machine
o Surface dust tests
• Cost of construction to control lead paint hazards
• Test children for health risks due to lead paint exposure and medical costs.

To date, Lead Safe Tahoe has funded the lead-based paint testing of 427 qualifying residential units. Approximately 40% of those have tested positive for lead in the paint exceeding the levels that are considered to be safe. Program funded lead hazard control work has been completed in 135 units, and 27 are currently in the bidding or construction phases. Grant funding has also provided training in lead-safe work practices for nearly 200 workers.

“The best thing about being able to work on a program like this is, at the end of the day, you know that your efforts are helping to make a positive difference in the lives of other individuals and families in our community,” said Phil Brad, Lead Safe Tahoe Program Coordinator. “In a smaller community program like this, all staff members get to work closely with the residents to achieve the goal of a safer living environment for their family and we are able to see the results ourselves when the work is done.”

The program is open to full-time residents of the City of South Lake Tahoe who own or rent a house or apartment and meet the eligibility criteria established by HUD.

For more information on this free program, call (530) 542-6011 or visit our website: http://www.cityofslt.us/LeadSafeTahoe

What can you do?

In the home
• Mop smooth floors using a damp mop weekly to control dust
• Vacuum carpets and upholstery to remove dust, preferably using a vacuum with a HEPA filter or a “higher efficiency” collection bag.
• Take off shoes when entering the house to minimize the amount of tracked in dust and dirt.
• Pick up loose paint chip carefully with a paper towel; wipe the surface clean with a wet paper towel.
• Use lead-safe procedures to avoid creating lead dust when remodeling, renovating, or maintaining your home.
• Have home checked for lead hazards by a lead professional (including the soil)

For your child:

• Frequently wash your child’s hands and toys to reduce exposure.
• Use cold tap water for drinking and cooking.
• Feed your child a low fat diet rich in iron, calcium and zinc. This has been shown to reduce the amount of lead that children and adults absorb into their bodies for a given exposure.
• Avoid using home remedies (such as arzacon, greta, pay-loo-ah, or litargirio) and cosmetics (such as kohl or alkohl) that contain lead.
• Have your child’s blood lead level tested at age 1 and 2. Children from 3 to 6 years of age should have their blood tested, if they have not been tested for and:
o They live in or regularly visit a house built before 1950.
o They live in or regularly visit a house built before 1978 with ongoing or recent renovations or remodeling or they have a sibling or playmate who has or did have lead poisoning.
• Visit the Green and Healthy Homes website at http://greenandhealthyhomes.org/