Naugatuck Valley Health District (NVHD) is pleased to announce the kick-off of National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week 2017, Oct. 22 to Oct. 28.
NVHD will host and participate in outreach and education activities designed to raise local awareness about the danger of lead exposure and poisoning, and educate parents on how to reduce exposure to lead in their environment, prevent its serious health effects, and learn about the importance of testing children for lead.
National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week 2017 is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The goal is to encourage organized, local community events, and to empower families and other stakeholders to take action. NVHD is committed to protecting children from lead poisoning and making homes in the Naugatuck Valley safe and healthy. NauVEL (Naugatuck Valley Emends Lead) is a $2.9 million lead hazard control grant awarded by HUD to NVHD. NauVEL can provide grants to residents of Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck, Seymour and Shelton.
Activities and events planned for the weeklong observance include: Hosting a Connecticut Children’s Healthy Homes Partners Meeting and participating in the 2017 Halloween Hoopla event in Warsaw Park, Ansonia.
Although lead in gasoline and paint has been banned in the United States since the 1970s, lead exposure and poisoning are still a problem, especially for children. Lead is mostly found in lead-based paint, which was used in homes before 1978; however, it can also be found in the water that travels through lead pipes or in the soil around a house.
Lead poisoning is caused by swallowing or breathing in the lead dust created by old cracked and chipped paint. Children are particularly at risk, often becoming poisoned by putting their hands or other lead-contaminated objects in their mouths, eating chips from flaking lead paint, or playing in lead-contaminated soil.
According the CDC, there is no known safe level of lead exposure, and even low levels can damage the brain and kidneys, as well as the reproductive, cardiovascular, circulatory, and immune systems. Lead is especially dangerous for children’s developing brains, causing reduced cognitive ability and attention span, impaired aptitude for learning, and an increased risk for behavioral problems.
Director of Health for NVHD, Dr. Jeffrey Dussetschleger notes that there are things parents can do to protect their children. One is for parents to have their young children screened by their pediatrician for elevated blood levels. The other is to remove lead hazards in the home. He is proud that NVHD can provide the opportunity for lead safe homes in the Valley through the NauVEL grant.
NVHD can help! Our NauVEL program has grants available now to remove lead paint hazards. For more information call 203 – 881-3255 or visit www.nvhd.org/nauvel
