|
|
|
|
|
Program Overview
|
Introduction
Childhood Lead Poisoning
Comprehensive Lead Services
Eligibility Requirements
Lead Safe Rental Registry
Lead Links
|
Contact Information
Lead Hazard Control Program
200 W Washington Street, 4th Floor 85003
602-495-0700
rehab.nsd@phoenix.gov
|
|
Program Introduction
|
|
The Phoenix Lead Hazard Control Program remediates lead hazards in privately-owned housing using a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The purpose of the program is to prevent childhood lead poisoning by creating lead-safe housing. Program partners are the Arizona Department of Health Services and Maricopa County Department of Public Health Services.
The program provides comprehensive lead services including testing of the home, control of the lead hazards found, parent education, blood lead testing of children in the home, and temporary relocation during lead work, if indicated.
Eligibility requirements for enrollment of a property include: pre-1978 construction,low-income residents, child resident under the age of six years (or pregnant woman resident), and geographic location in a targeted area of the city.The geographic requirement is waived in the case of a resident child with an elevated blood lead level. All services are free.
|
|
Childhood Lead Poisoning
|
|
Childhood lead poisoning is the most common environmental disease of children and is entirely preventable. Lead is a metal commonly found in many products in industrialized countries and serves no known function in the human body.
Although it is toxic to all systems of the body, the greatest concern is for its effects on the nervous systems of young children, even when levels are low. Young children are particularly vulnerable because they ingest more lead than adults through normal hand-to-mouth and exploratory behaviors,
and because their bodies absorb higher rates of the ingested lead than an adult's. In addition, their rapidly-developing nervous systems are more sensitive to adverse effects.
Symptoms of lead poisoning, which may not be apparent and may also have other causes, include delayed speech development, hyperactivity, fatigue, restlessness, hearing loss, irritability, poor large and small muscle coordination, poor spacial and conceptual ability and other nervous system manifestations that adversely effect intellectual and behavioral capacity.
|
|
Comprehensive Services
|
Lead testing of the home
Private sector companies under contract to the city and certified by the
Environmental Protection Agency test all painted surfaces, dust and soil
at the property and provide a report to the property owner and the Lead
Hazard Control Program.
Work plan reparation
Housing rehabilitation staff, trained to develop lead remediation plans
and certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, prepare a plan
to make the home lead safe. The goal is not to make the home lead-free
but to make the lead inaccessible to children in a cost-effective manner.
The plan is specific for that property, based on the testing results.
The project is assigned to a private sector lead contractor, also certified by the Environmental Protection Agency, who enters into a contract with the owner of the property.
Lead remediation
Lead remediation is conducted by the contractor under the oversight of a program construction monitor who monitors work quality and lead safe work practices on site. Examples of work items are stabilization and repainting of lead paint on stable surfaces, replacement of lead-painted components that cannot be stabilized, and protection of friction or impact surfaces that can create lead dust. A typical lead project takes about three-to-five days to complete. Blood lead testing of children
All resident children under six years of age may be tested for blood lead levels, free of charge, before and after the lead remediation work takes place. Blood is drawn at the home by staff members of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health Services and analyzed by the Maricopa Medical Center laboratory. Blood lead testing is not mandatory for participation in the program, but it is recommended that all children under age six get a blood lead test because it is the only sure way to determine if a child is being exposed to too much lead.
Parent education
Parents are provided with information on how to prevent childhood lead poisoning by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health Services staff. Parents learn how to identify and control many other non-housing related lead sources in their child's environment including cookware, toys, plastic mini-blinds, traditional remedies and parent occupational exposures. They also learn what constitutes a healthy diet that will help prevent lead poisoning and how to maintain lead painted surfaces in a safe manner.
Temporary relocation
About half of the lead projects completed under this program require a brief temporary relocation of the residents, because the nature and extent of the work limits the family's ability to live safely and conveniently in the home while a portion of the work is being completed. In these cases, temporary living arrangements are coordinated by program staff and provided without charge to the residents.
|
|
Childhood Lead Poisoning Requirements
|
Resident families must have incomes at or below 80% of area median income.
Child resident under the age of six years or a pregnant woman living in the home.
Housing built before 1978.
Housing located in one of the Neighborhood Initiative Areas
Neighborhoods targeted by the city of Phoenix for comprehensive revitalization
The Enterprise Community, a 10-square mile area of the central city that contains some of the oldest housing.
Maps showing the boundaries of
Neighborhood Initiative Areas and the Enterprise
Community.
The geographic requirement for eligibility is waived in the case of a child resident with an elevated blood lead level.
|
|
Lead Safe Rental Registry
|
Lead poisoning is an important environmental illness of young children, and those who live in older housing are most at risk. The City of Phoenix received a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help prevent lead poisoning by conducting lead hazard control activities in privately owned housing occupied by low income families. The Lead Hazard Control Program, established by the grant, remediates lead hazards to help protect at-risk children from the damage done by exposure to lead in paint, dust and soil in their homes, and helps to increase the stock of safe and affordable housing.
Why a Lead Safe Rental Registry?
The City of Phoenix Lead Hazard Control Program set up a Lead Safe Rental Registry to make it easier for families with young children to locate housing that has been made “lead safe” by our program activities.
Who will use the Rental Registry?
This web site will be used primarily by agencies that serve families with young children, such as Head Start, the Department of Economic Security, and the Maricopa County WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program, to assist their clients with locating housing units where lead hazards have been addressed.
What does inclusion in the Lead Safe Rental Registry mean?
The properties listed in the Lead Safe Rental Registry are housing units that were determined to be “lead safe” following their participation in the City of Phoenix Lead Hazard Control Program (LHCP), which addresses lead hazards in privately owned housing.
These properties were determined to be “lead safe” through initial testing, post-remediation clearance testing, or re-certification testing for this registry.
What does “lead safe” mean?
“Lead safe” means that there was no deteriorated lead-based paint, no lead contaminated dust, and no exposed lead contaminated soil at the time of the most recent testing. “Lead safe” should not be confused with a finding of no lead in paint and/or soil (“lead free.”)
How does rental property get on the list?
To be eligible for the Registry, the property must have received lead hazard control services within the last two years. The property will be listed on the Registry for two years from the date the work was completed. The landlord has the option to re-certify the property for another two years.
Who should I contact for further information?
Please contact the City of Phoenix Lead Hazard Control Program at 602-534-3756 for additional information or corrections to the Lead Safe Rental Registry.
The City of Phoenix has no control over and makes no warranties regarding activities that the landlord, management, or residents may have taken since the testing which might have disturbed lead based paint and/or normal deterioration that might have rendered the unit lead contaminated since the test date.
Lead Safe Rental Registry List
|
|
Lead Links
|
|
Link to Maricopa Department of Public Health:
http://www.maricopa.gov/Public_Health/Community/Programs/Lead/default.aspx
|
|
Link to Arizona Department of Public Health Services:
http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/oeh/invsurv/lead/
|
|
|
|
|
