This program offers education and resources to families and providers regarding lead exposure and poisoning issues.

The lead case management services are geared toward efforts to lower the child's BLL. These services include:

• Conducting home visits to children with very high blood lead levels
• Complete a child/family assessment (physical, psychosocial, and environmental)
• Conduct environmental home inspections to identify and test for possible lead sources in and around the home such as paint, soil, and dust
• Ensuring that unconfirmed elevated blood lead capillary test results are followed up with confirmatory venous tests
• Provide health education, monitor lead levels, and encourage medical follow-up
• Provide a plan of care and make recommendations to minimize risk of lead contact with lead, to include referrals to the LeadSafe program
• Follow up to verify that sources of lead are corrected
• Send lead retest or overdue letters to parents

Environmental

• Paint: Lead was used in house paint until it was banned in 1978. Dust and paint chips can be generated whenever it deteriorates or is scraped or sanded.
• Soil: Leaded gasoline for general use was discontinued in 1996. Lead can be found in high concentrations in the soil near large volume roadways due to leaded gasoline emission. Lead-based paint on buildings or structures can also contaminate the soil with paint chips or lead dust.
• Water: Drinking water may contain lead due to the use of lead pipes or lead solder. The use of lead pipes and solder (for potable water supplies) was banned in 1987.
• Other: Lead crystal or lead-glazed pottery or porcelain, cosmetics, some spices, fishing sinkers.

Occupational

If you or others in your family work with lead, make sure that any lead-contaminated clothing is handled safely and washed separately from household laundry. Keep work areas away from any areas where children are present. Use proper respiratory protection any time you are working with lead. The following are some occupations which may result in lead exposure and consequently bring lead into the home:

• Battery manufactures
• Auto mechanics
• Metal smelters & lead-reclamation plants
• Miners, especially lead miners
• Glass manufactures
• Painters
• Plastic manufactures
• Printers
• Ceramic or crystal ware manufactures
• Lead abatement workers
• Steel welders or cutters

Certain hobbies have a high lead exposure

• Oil painting
• Stained glass
• Pottery making
• Refinishing furniture
• Hunting or fishing equipment
• Lead soldering

Other sources of lead exposure

• Medicinal (folk remedies)
• Lead-based cosmetics and pottery
• Antique furniture and toys

Note: "Lead" pencils manufactured today DO NOT contain lead; they contain graphite.

Housekeeping

• Keep children away from peeling or chipping paint and accessible or chewable surfaces painted with lead-based paint, especially window sills and window wells.
• Cleaning floors, window frames, window sills and other painted surfaces weekly with warm water and a tri-sodium phosphate (TSP) based cleaner (1/2 cup automatic dishwashing liquid to 1 gallon of water).
• Rinse with clean water and a different mop.
• Do not vacuum hard surfaces. Normal household vacuums serve only to scatter dust further since it does not have a filter capable of containing the fine lead dust.
• Wash children's hands, faces, toys and pacifiers frequently.

Nutrition

Since more lead is absorbed on an empty stomach, make sure your child eats regular nutritious meals. Make sure your child's diet contains an adequate amount of iron and calcium.

• Foods high in iron: fortified cereals, cooked beans, spinach and raisins.
• Foods high in calcium: milk, yogurt, cheese and green vegetables.

Soil

Lead paint chips, lead dust, and leaded gasoline can all contaminate nearby soil impacting children who may play in the area and those who eat produce grown in that soil. In order to find out if there are lead hazards present, soil samples may be taken during a lead inspection. To help keep children safe, it is often recommended to remove and replace affected soil before covering the ground with a barrier such as grass or mulch. If gardening, use raised beds with clean soil. Other ways to help reduce health risks from contaminated soil includes keeping children from digging in areas that might contain soil lead hazards, encouraging hand washing when coming in from playing outdoors, and cleaning shoes before coming indoors.

Renovations and Remodeling

If your house was built prior to 1978, paint should be tested lead before doing any renovation or remodeling. If lead is detected, ensure that leaded paint is removed in a safe manner. It is strongly recommended that you have credentialed professionals trained in the removal of lead-based paint to perform these tasks. Home renovations impacting lead painted surfaces without proper training and project containment can expose you and your children to lead dust.

Water

If the lead content in your tap water is higher than the drinking water standard, let the water run for several minutes before using it. Use only fully-flushed water from the cold water tap for drinking and cooking.

Food:

Do not store food in open cans, especially imported cans. Do not store or serve food in pottery that is meant for decorative use only. Do not store wine or other alcoholic beverages in leaded crystal decanters or other lead crystal containers.