City of Camden becomes the state’s first “Model Lead-Safe City”, 5/21/08
City of Camden becomes the state’s first “Model Lead-Safe City" Flanked by dozens of city residents and their children who have experienced the childhood poisoning problem, New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen, City Mayor Gwendolyn Faison, and Camden City Chief Operating Officer Judge Theodore Z. Davis signed an agreement designating Camden as the state’s first “Model Lead-Safe City.” “This agreement places Camden at the forefront in addressing the childhood poisoning problem,” said Chen, who unveiled a report in April that showed that thousands of children in New Jersey are poisoned in their homes every year due to exposure to deteriorating lead-based paint. According to the Public Advocate’s report, the childhood lead poisoning problem was determined to be particularly acute in the state’s major cities. In response to the report, Governor Jon S. Corzine has signed an executive order requiring state departments to tighten their lead poisoning prevention activities Under the Model Lead-Safe City agreement signed today, city officials committed to take steps to: improve educational outreach on the issue; expand the number of children screened for lead poisoning; improve the inspections of properties that may be lead-burdened; tighten oversight of lead abatement contractors; and provide improved relocation assistance and more lead-safe housing to affected families. Specifically, the city will:
The city will also work aggressively to increase the stock of lead-safe housing in the city to provide temporary relocation for families whose homes are being abated. As part of this effort, the city may enter into agreements with hotels to provide discounted rates for displaced families and will work with the not-for-profit community to secure permanent and temporary housing for families. “Lead poisoning is a completely preventable problem that affects far too many of our children here in Camden and in cities throughout the state of New Jersey,” said Mayor Faison. “We are dedicated to doing whatever it takes to keep our children safe and we are very proud to be the first Model Lead-Safe City in the state.” “It is completely unacceptable for children in this city to be sickened in their own homes due to exposure to deteriorating lead paint,” said Judge Davis. “I am pleased that the approach we have developed here in Camden emphasizes collaboration among our citizens, government agencies, non-profit-organizations, and the city’s vital health care community.” According to city officials, there are approximately 8,894 children under the age of six in the City of Camden, and the City is home to 2.3% of all lead-burdened children statewide. In addition, about 80 percent of Camden’s housing was built before 1978, when the national ban on the sale of lead paint went into effect, and approximately 57% of the housing in Camden was built before 1950 when the level of lead in paint was at its highest. The New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate conducted a field investigation late last year in five of the New Jersey cities with the highest concentration of lead-poisoned children: Trenton, Camden, Newark, East Orange and Irvington. Together, these five cities accounted for 31 percent of all reported lead poisonings in New Jersey in FY 2005. At each of the 104 addresses inspected, one or more children had already been lead poisoned within the past 10 years, and thus were or should have been inspected. Additionally, a minimum of approximately one-third of the homes had already undergone an abatement. DPA took up to 12 samples in each of the homes of the floors, window sills and window wells. As part of that DPA field study, 12 Camden homes were tested and 7 came back with elevated lead dust levels, or about 58 percent of homes tested.
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