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EPA Lead Program Grant Fact Sheet
EPA's Targeted Lead Grants
EPA's Targeted Lead Grant Program funds projects in areas with high incidences of children with elevated blood-lead levels in vulnerable populations. In 2007 the Agency awarded more than $5.2 million in grants under this ambitious program. These targeted grants are intended to address immediate needs of the communities in which they are awarded, and will also highlight lead poison prevention strategies that can be used in similar communities across the country.
EPA's lead program is playing a major role in meeting the federal goal of eliminating childhood lead poisoning as a major public health concern by 2010, and the projects supported by these grant funds are an important part of this ongoing effort. According to the Centers for Disease Control in 1978 there were 13.5 million children in the US with elevated blood lead levels. By 2002, that number had dropped to 310,000.
Chicago, Illinois - Primary Prevention Partnership
EPA has selected the Metropolitan Tenants Organization (MTO) in Chicago, Illinois, for a Targeted Lead Grant.
MTO, in partnership with the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Chicago Department of Public Health, will:
- Build partnerships between physicians and housing advocates to address lead poisoning prevention;
- Raise the awareness of physicians in high risk areas of Chicago about the role they can play to help tenants resolve lead hazards in their homes;
- Identify buildings with lead hazards;
- Facilitate intervention strategies to help families resolve lead hazards; and
- Educate parents about lead poisoning and what they can do to prevent it.
The project will identify, recruit and train the staff of medical clinics and a university residential program to identify patients with a high risk of living in housing containing lead hazards. Physicians will refer these patients to MTO who will provide the families with education about lead hazards and poisoning prevention. MTO will perform a visual inspection of their homes and will help families living in housing units containing lead hazards to get the hazards abated or to find a lead safe home for the tenants to move into.
MTO's project is a proactive one that reaches parents before their children have a chance to become poisoned. It also promotes a partnership between tenants and landlords to improve the housing situation.
For more information about EPA's Lead Program, visit www.epa.gov/lead or call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-LEAD.