Lead Poisoning Awareness and Prevention

Lead poisoning is a serious but preventable health problem. Lead can cause permanent damage—especially to the developing brains and nervous systems of unborn children and children under six years old.

While no amount of lead in the body is safe, the effects depend upon the level of lead in the blood. In children, even very low levels are associated with lowered intelligence, behavior problems, growth problems, hearing loss, and problems in maintaining a steady posture. Moderate levels can also harm the kidneys and liver. Very high levels can cause deafness, blindness, coma, convulsions, and even death.

Children who have been lead poisoned are much more likely to have problems with reading, vocabulary, attention, fine-motor coordination, school attendance, and academic achievement. They are more likely to drop out of high school.

Download the information sheet for parents or guardians in English (pdf) or Spanish (pdf).

Lead can also damage adults. It can cause problems with reproduction, blood pressure, digestion, the nervous system, memory and concentration, and muscles and joints.

Training programs

For educators
Lead Poisoning: Limiting the Ability to Learn
In partnership with the LAMPP (Lead Action for Medicaid Primary Prevention) project, HEC developed a training program to raise lead awareness among Connecticut educators (including teachers, administrators, pupil support personnel, health services personnel, and others, in pre-K through high school), as well as to help educators respond to the needs of children who have been harmed by lead poisoning. The program includes a two-hour classroom training, a train-the-trainer component, and an online version of the training. The training covers general information about lead poisoning, a discussion of why educators should be particularly concerned about lead poisoning, and methods of preventing lead poisoning. There is also an optional module for childcare providers, offering a brief overview of state lead-paint regulations for childcare facilities.

For employees of paint and home improvement stores
Employees in paint and home improvement stores often have the opportunity to help customers learn how to work safely around lead-based paint. To help them learn how to advise customers, training should be offered.

For contractors
Connecticut's lead-safe work practices training for painting, remodeling, and maintenance, which HEC developed in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Public Health, has been superseded by a new federal rule. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, which took full effect in April 2010, requires that:

• Renovators must be trained in the use of specific lead-safe work practices.
• Renovators and firms must be certified by EPA.
• Providers of renovation training must be accredited by EPA.
• Renovators must follow specific work-practice standards.

The rule applies to every person who is paid to perform renovation, repair, and painting projects in housing, childcare facilities, and schools built before 1978, when lead-based paint was banned. These individuals include home improvement contractors, maintenance workers, painters, and members of other specialty trades. The rule does not apply to minor maintenance or repair activities, which EPA defines as affecting less than six square feet of lead-based paint in a room or less than twenty square feet of lead-based paint on the exterior. Window replacement is not minor maintenance or repair.

For more information, see EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) website.

Tools for Healthy Living is a new program that teaches youth in 4-H afterschool programs about healthy homes and food safety.  A trained facilitator helps students in grades 4-6 explore the principles of a healthy home and learn how they can help to make their own homes and their communities healthier. Students are introduced to various environmental health and food safety topics:

• Lead poisoning
• Asthma triggers
• Mold and moisture
• Pests and pesticides
• Smoking
• Clutter
• Bacteria in food
• Food safety and food temperature
• Food safety and cleanliness

Students also learn how to act as advocates for a healthy home.

Henry and Fred Learn about Lead

Henry and Fred Learn about Lead is a simple rhyming story that teaches young children about the dangers of lead poisoning and how they can protect themselves. It is designed for adults—parents, grandparents, guardians, childcare workers, teachers, and others—to read aloud to very young children. The book can also be used for young readers and low-literacy adults. Additional information for adults is presented at the end of the text.

This bilingual picture book, in English and Spanish, is written to inform but not frighten children, as well as to instruct the adults who read it. Appealing graphics reinforce the simple lead-safety messages.

• Browse through the book.
• Download a companion activity book.
• See an interactive online activity book.

This lead-poisoning prevention curriculum includes an activity book for children in grades 1-3 and background information for teachers and parents/guardians. The children's activities include reading, writing, problem solving, a word search, a simple board game, and discussion.

Download an activity book, teacher's guide, and certificate of completion in English.

Download an activity book, teacher's guide, and certificate of completion in Spanish.

How Mother Bear Taught the Children about Lead teaches Native American children in grades 3-6 to identify the dangers associated with lead. It explains that lead is a poisonous substance that can make children sick. This curriculum helps children to recognize the sources of lead dangers in their environments, especially the most common sources: the dust and flakes from old, lead-based paint. It also notes other sources of lead: fishing sinkers, shotgun pellets, water from old lead pipes, and soil contaminated by leaded gasoline. Finally, the curriculum teaches children simple ways they can protect themselves and their younger siblings from lead dangers.

The curriculum uses themes and images that are culturally relevant for Native American children in grades 3-4 across North America. It has been designed for use by classroom teachers in conjunction with other aspects of the curriculum, such as language arts and science activities. A teacher's guide provides additional information about lead poisoning, as well as information for parents and guardians.

Download an activity book, teacher's guide, and certificate of completion.