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Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing (CLASH) is distributing a new brochure on Lead and Nutrition through local hunger centers this summer. The brochure gives simple, clear information on how a child’s diet can help mitigate the damage of lead exposure.
While there is no safe level of lead exposure, caregivers can select foods that are high
in calcium, iron and vitamin C to strengthen a child’s body against environmental lead
from paint dust or soil.
The brochure also reinforces the message that children under the age of six should be
tested for lead exposure on a regular basis. Routine testing during pediatric visits only
reaches about half of the “at risk” children in Cleveland. Caregivers are urged to ask
for lead testing at least by the first birthday and again at age 2 checkups.
Cleveland’s Lead Safe Certificate law won’t begin to require landlords to make rental
properties until March of 2021 and there’s no plan for enforcement of the law until 2023.
In the meantime, wise dietary choices can make a difference.
CLASH president Yvonka M. Hall expresses thanks to Northeast Ohio Coalition for the
Homeless (NEOCH) Mutual Aid Fund for paying for printing the brochure. NEOCH is a member of the CLASH coalition. CLASH also thanks the hundreds of volunteers who
are putting the brochure inside of emergency food bags being supplied around the Cleveland’s neighborhoods.
