Abstract
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe lead poisoning as a potentially devastating, but entirely preventable, disease caused primarily by exposure to dust from deteriorated paint on old housing (CDC, 2009).
*Anita Weinberg is Clinical Professor and Director of the ChildLaw Policy Institute at Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Civitas ChildLaw Center. In this capacity, she also directs the Lead Safe Housing Initiative and is the Chair of the Illinois Lead Safe Housing Task Force which oversaw the work described in this chapter. The author wishes to acknowledge and thank the students and staff who have worked on the Lead Safe Housing Initiative over the last 10 years and recognize the passion, energy, and persistence of the members of the Illinois Lead Safe Housing Task Force, our community partners, and ad hoc coalitions without whom we would not be on our way to eliminate the scourge of childhood lead poisoning within Chicago and other parts of Illinois. Special appreciation goes to The Chicago Community Trust, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Chicago Department of Public Health for their support of this work. In addition, our efforts would not have been possible without the in-kind support of Loyola University Chicago’s School of Law.
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Notes
- 1.
Lead Poisoning in Chicago: A Historical Perspective (found at leadsafeillinois.org). Despres, a Chicago alderman from 1955 to 1975, introduced Chicago’s first lead paint ordinance. Despres, who was Of Counsel, Despres Schwartz & Geoghegan, died in May 2009.
- 2.
Lead also has been described as “an environmental and public health hazard of global proportions” (UNEP & UNCEF, 1997). Lead clearly comes under the protections and agenda of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of action adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992, in that these documents call for the protection of children and the environment from the negative effects of “human impacts on the environment.”
- 3.
White lead is the paint pigment composed of lead carbonate or lead sulfate.
- 4.
While the primary focus of concern for children in USA is deteriorating lead paint in housing built prior to 1978, children in other parts of the world are being harmed in large numbers not only by lead sold in residential paint still being manufactured and sold in parts of the world, but also from a number of other sources including lead from battery recycling plants, smelters, medicinal products, and gasoline (UNEP & UNICEF, 1997). See also, for example, Associated Press (January 4, 2009), Lead for car batteries poisons an African town, last retrieved October 21, 2009 from http://www.msnbc.com/id/28484477/print/1/displaymode/1098; The Times of India (September 27, 2009), Lead poisons 121 children in eastern China, last retrieved October 21, 2009 from http://timesofindia.com/articleshow/msid-5061493,prtpage-1.cms; For an update on efforts to phase out leaded gasoline around the globe, see Clearing-House for the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (2008) Global strategies for phase-out of leaded gasoline of the partnership for clean fuels and vehicles. Last retrieved November 3, 2009 from http://www.unep.org/pcfv/PDF/PCFVLeadStrategy-Mar08.pdf.
- 5.
Over the years the Center has received grants from the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, the US EPA, and through a subcontract with the Chicago Department of Public Health and the CDC. In addition, a key source of support to the Task Force was its affiliation with Loyola University’s ChildLaw Center and the in-kind resources and indirect services provided by the University through the involvement of faculty, staff, and students.
- 6.
A similar format was successfully used at a Summit convened by the Center and its partners in September 2009 which brought together five communities in the greater Chicagoland area at high risk for lead hazards to tackle the problem of lead poisoning on a local and state policy level and to consider broader healthy housing issues.
- 7.
- 8.
This strategic plan focused initial efforts on lead-based paint in housing because it was, and still is, considered the primary source of exposure for children. There are other sources of lead in the environment, however, which will need to be addressed before the problem can be completely eliminated.
- 9.
Most recently, on behalf of the Task Force, the Center successfully advocated for legislation that appropriates $5 million for a pilot program in two communities to remove lead hazards primarily through window replacement (Build Illinois Bond Fund, 2009). The program includes a community economic development aspect, providing incentives to contractors who train and hire community members to do the work, and supporting the purchase of windows manufactured and assembled in Illinois (Illinois Lead Poisoning Prevention Act, 2008).
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Weinberg, A. (2010). A Case Study of a Partnership in Chicago to Prevent Childhood Lead Poisoning. In: Garbarino, J., Sigman, G. (eds) A Child's Right to a Healthy Environment. The Loyola University Symposium on the Human Rights of Children, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6791-6_3
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