title: Identifying housing that poisons: a critical step in eliminating childhood lead poisoning.
abstract: The purpose of our study was to develop a method to identify and prioritize "high-risk" buildings in Chicago that could be targeted for childhood lead poisoning prevention activities. We defined "high-risk" buildings as those where multiple children younger than 6 years with elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) had lived and where lead hazards were previously identified on environmental inspection. By linking 1997-2003 Chicago elevated blood lead surveillance, environmental inspection, and building footprint data, we found that 49,362 children younger than 6 years with elevated BLLs lived at 30,742 buildings. Of those, 67 were "high-risk" buildings and these were associated with 994 children with elevated BLLs. On average, 15 children with elevated BLLs had lived in each building (range: 10-53, median: 13). Almost two thirds (n = 43) of the high-risk buildings had two or more referrals for inspection to the same apartment or housing unit; of those, 40 percent (n = 17) failed to maintain lead-safe status after compliance. Linking blood lead surveillance, environmental inspection, and building footprint databases allowed us to identify individual high-risk buildings. This approach prioritizes lead hazard control efforts and may help health, housing, and environmental agencies in targeting limited resources to increase lead-safe housing for children.
authors.affiliation: Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
authors.forename: Nimia L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Reyes
authors.forename: Lee-Yang
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Patrick M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: MacRoy
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.forename: Pamela A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Evens
authors.forename: Mary Jean
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D002641:Chicago / Q000453:epidemiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D006798:Housing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood; D007855:Lead Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D020264:Lead Poisoning, Nervous System, Childhood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D011204:Poverty Areas; D014504:Urban Health
chemical_list: D007854:Lead