Lead Paint
Houston, like many metro areas across the country, has a high volume of housing stock built prior to 1978, when lead paint was outlawed for residential use. The Houston Chronicle estimates more than 500,000 homes in the Texas city were built prior to that date, making these areas a high risk for lead poisoning. However, a city program launched in 1996 aims to remediate as many homes as possible in the Houston metro area. According to The Houston Chronicle, the city program has cleaned up 3,116 homes in targeted areas.
This year, a $3 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development—combined with $975,000 in city bond funds—will allow the Houston Health Department to remove lead from another 160 homes.
The program, which operates at no cost to families and also serves rental properties, is open to low-income families with a child under six or a pregnant woman in the household. The city Health Department has identified 16 high-risk areas for abatement in 80 targeted ZIP codes. Within those ZIP codes, about 60,000 houses were built before 1940, putting an estimated 270,000 children at risk.
Lead poisoning can have a severe impact on children, causing brain development problems and, in the worst cases, death. About 800 children under the age of six in Houston are found to have blood levels of lead that are considered concerning each year, and an additional 21,200 children each year have lower levels of lead detected in their system.
Although no lead level is considered safe, no child has died from lead poisoning in Houston in the last 10 years, according to the city’s health department.
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