City Offers 首页owners Information on Testing for Lead in Paint and Water

National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week is October 22 through 29, 2023 and the 朴茨茅斯市 健康 and Water Departments are taking the opportunity to raise awareness of the issue by providing the following information on the City website and at the Farmers’ Market on Saturday, 10月21日, 2023.

油漆含铅量: Older housing stock is at risk of contamination by lead paint which was not banned until 1978. Portsmouth has some of the oldest housing stock in the state and testing has demonstrated the correlation between pre-1978 housing stock and children found to have lead poisoning levels in their blood.

自4月9日起, 2018, New Hampshire’s Universal Testing Law h根据需要 children to be tested for lead levels at age one and again at age two. These screening tests are usually a routine part of a child’s annual well child check visits to the doctor. The NH Department of 健康 and Human Services (NHDHHS) is concerned about lead poisoning in young children because many homes in New Hampshire still contain lead paint and their most-recent Lead Exposure in New Hampshire Data Brief reported that between 2019 to 2021, there was a 25 percent decrease in the rate of children who were lead-tested at the required ages of one and two, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and because there was a national recall of point-of-care (doctors’ office) testing materials.

The NHDHHS, Division of Public 健康 Services lead poisoning prevention webpage 笔记, “Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to negatively affect a child’s ability to think, 学习和行为. While the effects of lead poisoning may be permanent, 如果发现得早, there are things parents can do to prevent further exposure and reduce damage to their health and development. Parents should check with their child’s pediatrician’s office if they are unsure if their child has had the required tests and get them tested as soon as possible, 如果他们没有经过测试.”

The 朴茨茅斯市 Inspection Department is also working on steps to reinforce its program of inspecting rental properties for the presence of lead paint hazards. The City’s 卫生部门 is working with NHDHHS to pinpoint areas in Portsmouth where there are concentrations of older housing stock and children whose tests have shown high levels of lead in their blood. 在家里, lead paint hazards are the most significant risk to children and pregnant women followed by lead in drinking water and consumer products that contain lead.

The 朴茨茅斯市 健康 办公室r Kim McNamara commented, “The 朴茨茅斯市 卫生部门 has worked for some time to alert vulnerable populations to the risks of lead paint. We know that small children ingest lead through lead paint 灰尘 and paint chips (because they are sweet); yet exposure to lead in an amount as small as a grain of sugar can cause irreparable damage to a child’s developing brain and cause significant developmental, social, and behavioral issues down the road. We join NHDHHS in calling attention to this risk and continue to work with homeowners, landlords and our Inspection Department to get rid of lead paint hazards, 灰尘, 和碎片, 安全.”

水中的铅: While the City Water System has no lead in its source waters and tests the water system regularly, 根据需要, to confirm there are no detectable levels of lead in the drinking water in your home, that might come from pipes and fixtures, we recommend a routine water test for lead.

In cooperation with the City’s Safe Water Advisory Group, the City’s Water Division is making free lead water testing kits available to Portsmouth water customers, 供应不足时. 要求一个工具包, residents should contact Mason Caceres, 二级水质专员, 电话:(603)312-3804或 mecaceres@zishu86.com for the one-time code that allows them to retrieve the kit. Full instructions on use are included and the results will be reported to the homeowner. 去 信息传单.

The City’s Director of Water 资源, Brian Goetz, commented “There may be some housing stock with older pipes, faucets or other fixtures that may contain lead that we are not aware of. 因此, we sought approval from City Council in this year’s budget to offer this free testing opportunity for our Water System customers who haven’t had their home plumbing tested for the presence of lead.”