Lead-free agreement combats poisoning

Lead-free agreement combats poisoning
Long Branch becomes Model Lead-Safe City
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — The City of Long Branch has joined the growing list of New Jersey municipalities to sign an agreement with the New Jersey Public Advocate to aggressively respond to and prevent the problem of childhood lead poisoning.

New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen and Mayor Adam Schneider have signed an agreement designating Long Branch as the state's eighth "Model Lead- Safe City." Long Branch approved the agreement last month and Chen recently signed it as well.

"The City of Long Branch is to be commended for its commitment to addressing this serious health concern. This agreement builds on some forward-thinking initiatives that the city already has in place and makes Long Branch a leader in the lead poisoning prevention area," said Chen, who unveiled a report last April that showed that thousands of children in New Jersey are poisoned in their homes every year due to exposure to deteriorating lead-based paint.

According to the Public Advocate's report, the childhood lead poisoning problem was determined to be particularly acute in the state's cities.

In response to the report, Gov. Jon S. Corzine has signed an executive order requiring state departments to tighten their lead poisoning prevention activities.

Long Branch Director of Health David Roach said lead poisoning is always a concern in urban areas with older housing stock.

"Lead-based paint in construction is a national problem," Roach said.

"We don't have an inordinate amount of cases in Long Branch. But when you have housing stock in an urban area, you are at more risk."

Under the Model Lead-Safe City agreement, Long Branch officials committed to take steps to:

• Designate a Lead-Safe City Coordinator, who will head up all efforts related to responding to and preventing lead poisoning;

• Distribute lead poisoning educational materials through city public and private schools;

• Notify residents of a multi-unit building to get a blood lead test when a child is found to be lead poisoned in one unit of that building;

• Review and recommend changes to the existing Lead-Based Paint municipal ordinance to deal with lead hazards; and

• Identify areas in the city where children have elevated blood levels or are not being tested, and initiate corrective actions for the safety of all children living in Long Branch.

Roach explained that two coordinators would be appointed for the program, likely he and Michael Kowal, who also works for the city's health department.

"We are licensed lead inspectors and Monmouth County risk assessors," Roach said.

Because New Jersey has some of the oldest housing stock in the country, lead poisoning remains a challenging public health concern, according to a press release from the Public Advocate's Office.

Long Branch, in particular, is most vulnerable because of the number of pre-1950 housing units in the city. Household paint contained extremely high levels of lead pigments before 1950. Approximately 32 percent of Long Branch's housing stock was built before 1950, and almost 75 percent was built before 1978, the year that lead-based paint was completely banned, the press release states.

The New Jersey Department of the PublicAdvocate conducted a field investigation in late 2007 in five of the New Jersey cities with the highest concentration of lead-poisoned children: Trenton, Camden, Newark, East Orange and Irvington. Together, these five cities accounted for 31 percent of all reported lead poisonings in New Jersey in 2005.

At each of the 104 addresses inspected, one or more children had already been lead poisoned within the past 10 years, and thus were or should have been inspected. Additionally, approximately one-third of the homes had already undergone an abatement.

According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, lead is invisible to the naked eye and has no smell. Children may be exposed to it from consumer products through normal hand-to-mouth activity, which is part of their normal development. They often place toys and fingers in their mouth, exposing themselves to lead paint or dust.

Lead, a metallic substance, remains in the environment years after its initial use. It is toxic to the body's tissue and enzymes. Lead poisoning results from exposure to lead in the environment. Even though lead has been banned for decades, it still may be present in homes built prior to 1978 and is most commonly found in chipping or peeling paints, plumbing and surrounding soil. Removing or avoiding lead sources or early detection through blood screening is the best means to prevent lead poisoning. Lead can be removed through proper abatement techniques.

Eliminating exposure to lead poisoning and increasing public awareness about the dangers of lead exposure were also the focus of a summer

fair held in the city last week.

The Monmouth County Health Department partnered with community groups and healthcare organizations to hold "Kickoff the Summer Lead Free" on June 6 in Slocum Park.

"Exposure to lead is dangerous to children and adults and poses negative health effects after prolonged exposure," said Freeholder Amy A. Mallet, who oversees the county's Department of Health. "This summer-oriented awareness event will give parents and caregivers the tools to assess and remove lead-based products from their homes and play areas."

The awareness fair offered lead level blood screening for children, information about sources of lead paint in the environment, and dust-wipe kits that parents can use to evaluate the painted surface in their homes.

The county Health Department joined with the Long Branch Health Department, Monmouth Family Health Center, and the Regional Prenatal Consortium of Monmouth and Ocean Counties to organize the event.


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