$1.2 million for Jackson to combat lead-based paint
Jackson will receive $1.2 million in funding to combat lead-based paint in homes across the city as part of a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant.
The city will also receive $150,000 in Healthy Homes supplemental funding. This is the first time Jackson has received the Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control funding, and it is the only city in the state to receive it.
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With the funding, Jackson will be able to remove lead-based paint and other health hazards in 86 eligible low-income homes in Hinds County.
“I would like to thank the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for providing our city with the funding to address an issue that not only impacts children in Jackson, but across the country,” Mayor Tony Yarber said in a city news release. “This supports our city’s efforts to ensure we have a healthy community. The funding comes at a time when few other resources have been available to protect children and families from these hazards. Decades of research have proven that children in lead-impacted environments suffer disproportionately mentally, physically, and emotionally.”
HUD's goal is to reduce the number of children with elevated blood lead levels.
A study published in the Journal of Pediatrics shows that from 2009 to 2015, Mississippi children under 6 with high blood lead levels jumped from 3.6 percent to 6.3 percent. This was the highest increase in children with unsafe blood lead levels out of a 37-state data set. The Mississippi State Health Department refutes this data, suggesting children's blood lead levels have gone down over the past several years.
Dr. Harvey Kaufman, senior medical director of Quest Diagnostics, which compiled the data, said that children from families with a lower socioeconomic status are at a greater risk of high blood lead levels, especially considering the greatest risk for lead exposure happens in older homes.
The plumbing in homes built before 1978 could contain lead materials and soldering, which can leach into the drinking water. And more concerning: Those homes could contain lead paint, which was not outlawed until 1978 and is a great contributor to high blood lead levels in children.
“We have a long way to go, both in terms of contaminated water and residual lead-based paint, to reduce disparities that put some of our children at disproportionate risk of exposure to lead," Kaufman said in Quest's press release.
Contact Anna Wolfe at (601) 961-7326 or awolfe@gannett.com. Follow @ayewolfe on Twitter.