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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Lands Council Receives EPA Grant to Reduce Childhood Lead Poisoning in Spokane
Contact: Kat Hall, Environmental Health Program Director, The Lands Council*, (509) 209-2403
Nicole Powell, Environmental Health Program Assistant, The Lands Council, (509) 209-2404
Amber Waldref, Development Director, The Lands Council, (509) 209-2407
October 25th, 2007
In conjunction with National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week and Children's Health Month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded The Lands Council a Targeted Lead Grant in the amount of $72,000. The grant money will be used for targeted outreach and education to reduce childhood lead poisoning and to increase childhood blood lead screening in four inner-city Spokane neighborhoods.
"We're thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the community to help protect underprivileged kids from lead poisoning," said Kat Hall, Environmental Health Program Director at The Lands Council, who is coordinating the project. "This project dovetails with The Lands Council's work over the last decade to clean up the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene Watershed from a century of mining and protect the health of those most affected by exposure to environmental toxins."
Childhood exposure to lead can lead to anemia, behavior problems, learning disabilities, brain damage, and in some cases, death. While the numbers of lead-poisoned children have declined in recent years, the burden of lead poisoning continues to fall disproportionately on low-income families living in older, poorly-maintained housing.
By creating self-sustaining partnerships with government agencies, neighborhood councils, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and health care providers, The Lands Council will accomplish three main tasks:
(1) Use computer mapping (Geographic Information Systems, or GIS) to identify Spokane neighborhoods that are most at-risk for childhood lead poisoning (more specifically, this means areas with homes inhabited by children ages 0-6 that were built before 1950 and likely contain lead-based paints).
(2) Educate families about the health effects of lead poisoning on children, how to recognize symptoms, what families can do to protect themselves from lead exposure, and how to access existing resources and programs aimed at testing children and checking homes for lead.
(3) Document suspected elevated blood lead levels among at-risk children by providing free, voluntary on-the-spot blood lead screening.
The Lands Council is one of five recipients of the Targeted Lead Grant in EPA's Region 10, which includes Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
For more information, please visit http://www.landscouncil.org/water/reducing_lead.asp.
*The Lands Council is a Spokane-based non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and revitalizing the Inland Northwest through education and community engagement. We collaborate with a broad range of interested parties to seek smart and mutually-respectful solutions to environment and health issues.
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