Get the lead out
Did you know more kids in Philadelphia are affected by lead contamination than in Flint, Michigan?
The city of Flint faces a major public health crisis due to the city’s contaminated water supply, but elevated blood lead levels are more widespread than you might think – right here in Pennsylvania.
A little more than 3% of tested children in Flint meet the Center for Disease Control’s threshold for high lead levels. Here’s a sample from 2014 of the top 18 cities:
- Pittsburgh: 8.32%
- Philadelphia: 10.19%
- Wilkes-Barre: 13.17%
- Reading: 16.14%
- Allentown (highest on the list): 23.11%
As it is across most of the country, the main source of contamination is deteriorated lead paint in old houses. Approximately 90% of housing units in Philadelphia were built before lead was banned for residential use.
In 2014, although 3,900 kids in Philadelphia showed elevated levels, only 450 were high enough to mandate intervention by the Health Department. But the $10k cost to remediate lead hazards in homes means that, with the funds available, Health can only fix about 100 houses a year. Further, only 30% of kids under 7 get screened for lead in the city so the problem may be bigger than we suspect.
Just one poisoned kid is one too many—we need a plan.
STAY TUNED for PCCY’s proposal on how to deal with lead in homes.
A lift so heavy they can not budge-it?
On Tuesday, President Obama delivered his final budget address. On Wednesday, Governor Wolf gave his second.
Two budgets. Both reflect that education remains the top priority for voters in the Commonwealth for the second year in a row.
President Obama address included:
- access to quality, affordable child care for 1.1M more children by 2026
- tripling child care tax credits for families
- a cash boost for Head Start programs
- a further push for universal quality pre-k in the form of a funding increase for Preschool Development Grants
Gov. Wolf’s address delivered the goods for kids too:
• Restoring school funding previously gutted by the previous administration
• $120M for quality pre-k for lower- and middle-income families
• A $28M investment in high school technical education
This is definitely a great beginning to a decidedly long budget process. Click the link below and reassure your elected officials in Washington and Harrisburg that you support their efforts to put our kids first.
Help rally our legislators to work with their colleagues to achieve our shared goals and to meet these levels of investment.