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The city is once again on the move in its fight
against childhood lead poisoning. Thanks to a
grant agreement with the Illinois Department of Public Health, the
Springfield City Council was expected to pass an ordinance this week
authorizing $184,840 for the city’s Childhood Lead Poisoning
Prevention Program, plus an additional $164,856 in lead-mitigation funds
for the Office of Planning and Economic Development.
“This is standard,”
says Ward 1 Ald. Frank Edwards, chairman of the council’s committee
for public affairs and safety, which cleared the measure for full council
action earlier this week. “The money will be spent on
low-income housing with children in the home to get rid of lead-based
paint.”
Mike
Farmer, director of Springfield’s Office of Planning and Economic
Development, says that his office has been working to rid residences of
lead hazards since the ’70s, when the risks of lead-based paint
became widely known. The grant funds will be used to eliminate lead
poisoning from children in 20 more area homes, he says. “It’s worthwhile,” Farmer says, “especially since
children are so susceptible to the horrors of lead poisoning. It gives the
child a much better chance by reducing the impact of detrimental
effects.”
Nearly one in four Illinois
children under the age of 7 has lead poisoning, according to the Illinois
Department of Public Health. Lead poisoning can cause learning
disabilities, mental retardation, behavioral problems, lowered IQ, stunted
growth, hearing impairment, and even convulsions, coma, and death at higher
levels. In recent years, several other city and
state organizations have implemented measures to fight childhood lead
poisoning [see Amanda Robert, “Ties that bind,” Aug. 2].
Contact Amanda Robert at arobert@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2007.
