Children of color, urban ecology, and the elimination of toxic lead pollution: The twenty-first century policy challenge

In recent decades, hard-fought environmental justice and public health policies have resulted in significant progress in reducing childhood lead poisoning. However, it is still estimated that .5 million US children have blood lead levels (BLL) substantially above the safety threshold. Minority children of color (mostly African-Americans and Mexican Americans) and other children of mostly low-income living in older housing comprised the highest percentage of these exposed children. Recent public health interventions have focused on housing and cultural practices that encourage lead ingestion. My paper will address three less-studied aspects of lead pollution facing disadvantaged minority children. First, I will examine lead reduction measures for school buildings and their water supplies (involving the Lead and Copper Rule of 1991) and their uneven effectiveness. Results will be presented of analyses by agencies and the EPA of city- and state-level programs to control lead in drinking water at schools and day care centers. Secondly, I will present data from recent geophysical research tracing climate transport and atmospheric emissions of lead (including indoor leaded dust) that may distally contribute to inner-city children having high risks of local lead exposures. Third, this investigator collected site data published by agencies and academic researchers indicating elevations in environmental lead in city neighborhoods struck by natural disasters such as floods. This investigation concludes with recommendations for new childhood lead risk indicators and policy objectives. These policies need to incorporate the new body of scientific information regarding lead pollution in urban ecologies and disaster scenarios with vulnerable minority children populations.