New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
New Haven unveils new dashboard on lead poisoning and abatement
NEW HAVEN — The city has grown more aggressive in its efforts to combat lead poisoning in recent years, hiring more inspectors, providing free home inspections, putting into place the state’s tightest standards for when to act and using grant money to fund home renovations and lead abatement efforts.
Now it’s putting data related to those efforts on a new “New Haven Blood Lead Case Dashboard” so people can go online and see how and what the city is doing, Mayor Justin Elicker and other officials announced Thursday.
The dashboard, available at nhvlead.org, provides real-time information on how many inspections the city has done, lab results, how many abatement actions have begun, the city’s management plan and how many cases are in court, said Director of Environmental Health Rafael Ramos.
In 2020, there were 134 cases. In 2021, there were 120 cases. So far in 2022, there have been 112 cases, the city said in a release.
The dashboard “is another tool that we have,” where “the public can see the number of cases we’ve had,” and is part of a stepped-up public awareness campaign that includes direct outreach to schools and daycare center, public advertising and distribution of literature, Elicker said.
In addition, the city still is providing up to $15,000 per unit via the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development lead abatement program for home renovations to reduce lead poisoning risk by either removing lead paint or encapsulating it to make the unit “lead safe,” said Ramos.
Since 2020, lead abatement has taken place at 138 city locations through both enforcement actions and the HUD program, which provides five-year, forgivable loans. The loans are available through the city, with priority to seven “opportunity” neighborhoods: the Annex, Fair Haven, Dixwell, Dwight, Hill North, Hill South and Newhallville.
“This is an exciting moment,” Elicker said, flanked by Ramos, Community Services Administrator Dr. Mehul Dalal, alders Sarah Miller, D-14, and Steven Winter, D-21, and more than a half-dozen workers in the fight to prevent lead poisoning at a press conference Thursday morning.
The press conference took place in front of an owner-occupied house at 63 Pierpont St. off Ferry Street in Fair Haven that recently completed a successful lead abatement project. The event took place in advance of National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, which runs from Oct. 23-29.
Lead is a toxic substance found in most houses built before 1978, when lead paint was a commonly used building material.
It can cause permanent and severe health problems when children are exposed to it, affecting the brain and nervous system and slowing growth and development and causing hearing and speech problems, among other issues, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A high percentage of New Havens’ housing stock has lead paint issues, in large part because so many of the city’s houses were built before 1978, when tighter restrictions on the use of lead paint went into effect, Elicker said.
Many cases of lead poising result from “kids picking up and playing with lead paint and putting them in their mouths,” Elicker said. “The City of New Haven has a very aggressive stance on how to respond,” he said, pointing out that the city for years has had a standard to take abatement action any time there’s a concentration of more than 5 micrograms per deciliter.
Dalal said the “burden” of the widespread use of lead in paint “is a burden that falls disproportionately” on people who live in older housing. He said it’s “critical” that children who are at risk get tested.
“We also have to work on ways to prevent exposure to lead in the first place,” he said.
Ramos, the city’s lead official on lead poisoning prevention, said the city has created “a robust lead poisoning prevention and awareness campaign” that has the “most stringent” standards in the state.
Among the challenges the city faces is that “we have a shortage of certified lead abatement contractors,” and one of the things the city is doing in response is, “we’re providing training to New Haven residents, at no cost,” Ramos said. The training is offered in both English and Spanish, he said.
More information on the city’s lead poisoning prevention efforts is available at nhvlead.com
Amanda Decew, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Fair Haven Community Health Care who is on the city’s Lead Advisory Board, said the city has made “tremendous progress” in its response to lead poisoning in recent years.
A few years ago, “I felt really powerless because I knew that” a child with lead poisoning was “facing really powerful and permanent changes in their brain ... because of exposure to lead.”
The improvement “isn’t by accident,” Decew said. “This is the result of a lot of advocacy” and “really hard work.”
People need to know “that they can be tested for lead regardless of their ability to pay” at Fair Haven Community Health Care. If people test positive for lead poisoning, “it’s really important to follow up,” Decew said.
Miller, who lives in an older house in Fair Haven, found out while pregnant a few years ago that there was lead paint in her house and took action to mitigate it. “I think there’s a long way to go, but this is definitely the right way to go,” she said.
Winter said he was encouraged by the new dashboard “and the transparency and public accountability” that come with it.
“When children are exposed to lead, it can cause permanent and severe health problems, but it is also 100 percent preventable,” said Director of Health Maritza Bond in the release. “That’s why the New Haven Health Department is committed to doing everything we can do to get the word out about the preventative measures and resources available to residents to help make their homes lead safe.
“In the unfortunate instances where elevated blood lead levels are found, we are going to support those individuals and families in every way possible and we are also going to provide transparency into how those cases are moving forward through our new online dashboard.”
Individuals or neighborhood groups and community organizations seeking more information or interested in inviting the Lead Poisoning Prevention Team to participate in their events can email Director of Environmental Health Ramos at rramos@newhavenct.gov.