Call On Elected Officials To Declare A State Of Emergency Over Lead Poisoning

The threat of toxic lead continues to have a detrimental impact on the minds of Black babies and residents. Despite decades of effort, hundreds of Baltimore children are still poisoned every year, most of them living in neglected and old houses in redlined neighborhoods. Our elected officials have not made stopping lead poisoning a number one priority. Black children are already faced with so many challenges and shouldn’t have to be faced with harming levels of lead exposure in a place in their homes or schools. Therefore, to stop the public health crisis that is lead poisoning, we call for a state of emergency NOW to remove and neutralize toxic lead exposures to every extent possible.  We call for the federal, state, and local governments (along with private philanthropy) to fund the $1.5 to $2 billion needed to abate lead in homes, remediate lead in soil, and stop lead exposures in water and air.  Given toxic lead's demonstrated link to violence, toxic lead must be treated as the emergency it is!