“Hey, City Hall, GET THE LEAD OUT!”

Despite receiving key recommendations from the Mayor’s Advisory Group on Lead Poisoning over a year ago, City Council has not yet taken action to strengthen the City’s lead laws. As yet another day passes, it’s easy to cluck disapprovingly at the prolonged process of policy change.

But for seven unsuspecting children in Philadelphia every day, time comes to an abrupt stop when they’re diagnosed with lead poisoning. Their lives, and the lives of their families, are forever changed.

The Advisory Group’s recommendations would spare most of the 2,700 children who are poisoned every year from a lifetime of adverse health and social conditions, but with no movement in City Hall on the horizon, we knew we had to take action.

That’s why we assembled the Lead Free Philly Coalition for a press conference Wednesday to announce its creation, composed of health organizations and clinicians, developers, housing advocates, families with children who were poisoned by lead, and PCCY. 

The Lead Paint Disclosure Law only requires landlords renting properties to families with children age 6 and younger to get their units certified as lead-safe or lead-free. As it exists today, the law is in effect voluntary and largely unenforceable, leaving children at the mercy of time.

The Coalition is pushing for a better law that will require all rental units built before the 1978 lead paint ban to be lead safe for children. 

“It’s been over a year since the Mayor received key recommendations from his Advisory Group on Lead Poisoning that included revisiting the existing legislation that doesn’t adequately protect kids,” said Colleen McCauley, PCCY’s Health Policy Director. “Meanwhile, every day, children are being poisoned by toxic lead paint in their own homes. Those kids need us to take action today.”

Aisha Stafford, mother of twin 4-year-old boys who were poisoned by lead paint, knows all too well the impact of child lead poisoning. Although she was unable to attend, she asked us to share her concerns.

“We have to do everything we can to protect children from the toxic paint in their houses,” said Stafford. “Parents need to know the physical and behavioral effects of lead poisoning for some children can be a life sentence. There are no cures, but City Council can prevent the majority of cases by making all older rental properties get tested for lead.”

“If City Council and the Mayor do not answer our call, that means they don’t care about us,” said AJ Moore, Executive Director of Philadelphia Neighborhood Housing Services. “They’re turning a blind eye to our children. I say we stand up and against them and fight for our children.”

Dr. Kevin Osterhoudt, Medical Director at The Poison Control Center at CHOP, noted that 4 million homes in Philadelphia were built before 1977.  The aging housing stock means that the Center regularly receives calls from doctors and parents seeking expert help in managing children with lead poisoning.

“Lead is a burglar,” Dr. Osterhoudt said. “It creeps undetected within our homes and schools and steals from our children. Lead robs our children of their potential.”

The Lead Free Philly Coalition will be briefing members of City Council until Council sessions resume in September, urging action on some of the recommendations submitted by the Mayor’s Advisory Committee in June of last year.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

The Coalition also launched an awareness campaign, encouraging city residents to print window signs that read, “Hey, City Hall, Get the Lead Out! #LeadFreePhilly”. After you place one in the front window in your home, print a few extras and share them with your neighbors.

Help us get these signs placed in homes across the City.

The window sign can be found at: childrenfirstpa.org/leadfreephilly