Families Against Cancer & Toxics

Local nonprofit Our Family Services received a $100,000 EPA grant for their
Get The Lead Out! program to eradicate childhood lead poisoning in Tucson. FACT President Terry Nordbrock is one member of their Advisory Panel. We are working cooperatively with the Arizona Department of Health Service (ADHS).

The current Arizona childhood lead poisoning screening policy recommends that
all children living in the targeted ZIP Codes should have a blood lead test at 12 and 24 months of age. These zipcodes in Pima County are 85701, 85704, 85706, 85708, 85711, 85713, 85714, 85716, 85719, and 85735. Children aged 36 to 72 months should be tested if they have not been previously tested.

All children covered by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) should be tested according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requirements, as follows: test all children at 12 and 24 months of age; test children at 36 to 72 months of age if they have not been previously tested.

For children not living in a targeted ZIP code area, health care providers should conduct an individual risk evaluation in order to determine whether those children are at increased risk of having an elevated blood lead test.

CDC's Lead Poisoning Elimination Plan for Arizona.

ADHS's Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.

Ann Marie Wolf and Teresa Leal of the Sonoran Environmental Research Institute (SERI) have also been working on childhood lead poisoning prevention in southern Arizona for over four years now. This year they educated over 30 "promotoras," community members trained to share health information, on childhood lead prevention. They conducted over 300 home visits and completed over 1000 in-home lead tests. They also had a three year program where they analyzed home remedies for heavy metal content. Here are two of their factsheets:

SERI's Pinpointing The Sources of Lead Exposure in Arizona

SERI's Lead Poisoning and Your Child (Tucson)

Lead in Children's Lunchboxes
Hat's off to California nonprofit Center for Environmental Health for their work ensuring that consumer products do not contain lead and other hazardous substances. They test children's lunchboxes, jewellry and other products for lead, and if found, lead media campaigns and/or lawsuits to ensure the removal of the exposure. They found lead in lunchboxes higher than the permissible standard in California. The amount of lead in lunchboxes is not higher than the federal standard, so they are receiving no help from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on this campaign, but the states of New York, Washington and Connecticut are recalling vinyl lunchboxes, as well as the City of Chicago:
NY Attorney General
WA Dept of Ecology
CT Attorney General
City of Chicago

Children's Health Environmental Coalition report on childhood lead poisoning prevention.

Articles
Get the Lead Out: Despite Tucson Water's best efforts, lead water pipes may still be scattered around the older parts of the city Tucson Weekly, 11/11/04.

Lead poisoning: Is your child at risk? Tucson Citizen, March 22, 2006.
More than 60,000 Tucson children could be at risk of lead poisoning, health officials warn. The main culprit? About 133,000 Tucson houses and apartments built before 1978 that could contain lead-based paint now outlawed by the federal government.. While reports of lead poisoning in Pima County children are low, with 22 last year, officials warn that could be misleading because most children are not tested.