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We accomplished many goals
during my first three years as mayor. I witnessed Toledoans
enthusiastic unite to tackle our challenges. Securing
long-term, affordable rates for water, stepping up to the
plate to identify the real cause of the algal blooms
poisoning Lake Erie, and as of October 20, 2020, we finally
approved the Lead-Safe Ordinance: a plan to reduce the risk
of childhood lead poisoning in our city and its most
vulnerable neighborhoods.
One of the easiest first
steps we can all take to address the dangers of lead
poisoning is to understand how to identify it, the health
risks it poses, and which groups are particularly
susceptible to exposure. The majority of our housing stock
was built before 1978 and are likely to contain lead. We
know that lead poisoning occurs more frequently in
households under the federal poverty level and in
small-scale rental properties, and it disproportionately
affects our communities of color that have long faced
affordable housing inequity, neighborhood disinvestment, and
discrimination when trying to find safe, healthy places to
live.
Although there are certainly
concerns about homes with chipping paint, young children are
exposed to lead-contaminated dust primarily from friction
surfaces such as doors and windows when they crawl on floors
and engage in normal hand-to-mouth behaviors. Pregnant women
and children under six are the most susceptible to lead
poisoning’s debilitating effects.
The CDC makes clear “that
the best way to protect children is to prevent lead exposure
in the first place” and that there is no amount of lead in a
child’s body that is “safe.” This is where we can all play
our part as Toledoans to rid our city of these deadly toxins
that target our children.
Benjamin Franklin’s saying that an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure is demonstrated well in the prevention
of lead poisoning, which has an estimated return on
investment of $17 to $221 per dollar spent on lead paint
hazard control. That means removing lead from our houses
through abatement or encapsulation and testing our homes for
lead dust before a child occupies it. Our current process
only tests after the damage is done, effectively using
children as lead detectors to measure the problem.
By current data from the
Toledo-Lucas County Health Department and the Ohio
Department of Health, more than 400 children tested from
September 2019 to September 2020 had elevated blood lead
levels. Only children under age six in “high-risk” zip codes
are mandated to be tested in Ohio, and only those with
levels at or above 5 ug/dL are reported. Hundreds of Toledo
children, infants, and toddlers are permanently damaged from
lead poisoning every year that could have been prevented.
I know Toledoans take the
poisoning of our people seriously. The longer we let these
toxic materials continue to decay in homes untreated, the
graver a threat they pose. The preventable poisoning of
Toledo residents must end. Under the new Lead-Safe Program,
Toledo City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance in
October 2020 to protect the highest risk populations of our
city: those residing in 1-4-unit rental properties built
before 1978. Over the next five years, property owners will
need to take steps to address any lead hazards in their
units, hire a local lead inspector to perform a visual
assessment and dust-wipe analysis, and receive a Lead-Safe
Certificate from the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department.
In passing the Lead-Safe
Ordinance, we have taken the first commitment to actions
that will eliminate the consequences of lead poisoning as a
threat to all Toledoans.
As I’ve said before,
successful cities take bold actions. With so many new
challenges emerging in recent years, it can be tempting to
be timid; to wait and see how things play out before we make
a move, but now is the right time to be bold. Especially in
the face of a threat with such an easy solution, our actions
now will improve the life expectancy of Toledo children,
decrease the unnecessary medical, emotional, and financial
stressors on low-income and minority populations, and give
more people a better chance to contribute to the continued
improvement of our city.
I know Toledoans will work together toward their own
success, a task that we prove, time and again, we can rise
up to meet. You can find more information, including details
on the "Early Bird Matching Grant," at ToledoLeadSafe.com.
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