A Guide for Protecting Our Children from Lead Poisoning

This guide from Earthjustice introduces the Better Lead Policy toolkit, which provides community advocates with resources to implement primary prevention practices to identify and remediate lead hazards before children are poisoned.

• Lead poisoning is described as a silent public health crisis that causes irreversible damage to children, with one-third of children globally suffering from its effects. In the United States, the crisis disproportionately affects Black and Latinx children.
• Children under the age of six are particularly susceptible to elevated blood lead levels, which can result in attention deficit disorder, cognitive delays, and the loss of IQ points. The document asserts that no level of lead in the blood is safe.
• Earthjustice developed the Better Lead Policy toolkit to move away from using children's blood tests as the primary method for identifying lead hazards. The toolkit includes a Policy Generator for proactive rental inspection programs, a Cheat Sheet for program elements, and a Deep Dive section featuring examples from over two dozen communities.
• The document highlights specific regional efforts to combat lead poisoning: in Rochester, New York, a collaborative prevention program led to lead poisoning rates declining 2.4 times faster than the rest of the state. Additionally, Cleveland passed a lead poisoning prevention law in July 2019 following advocacy by the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition.
• Earthjustice is pursuing legal action against the EPA to lower the standard for acceptable lead in homes and has advocated for New York to lower the blood lead level threshold that triggers action to find and address environmental lead sources.

APA

Earthjustice (2020). A Guide for Protecting Our Children from Lead Poisoning. https://earthjustice.org/article/how-to-protect-our-children-from-lead-poisoning

Chicago

Earthjustice. A Guide for Protecting Our Children from Lead Poisoning. 2020. https://earthjustice.org/article/how-to-protect-our-children-from-lead-poisoning.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Earthjustice |title=A Guide for Protecting Our Children from Lead Poisoning |date=31 August 2020 |url=https://earthjustice.org/article/how-to-protect-our-children-from-lead-poisoning |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{earthjustice2020guide, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{A Guide for Protecting Our Children from Lead Poisoning}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2020}, month = aug, url = {https://earthjustice.org/article/how-to-protect-our-children-from-lead-poisoning}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }