The Lead Safe Program: Solving the Problem of Lead Poisoning for our Children. Some of the key components of the Lead Safe Program follow. For the full text of the program, read the City Manager's Report (PDF: 260K).

1. Create the Lead Poisoning Prevention Citizen's Advisory Committee
April 30, 2002 marked the official creation of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Citizen's Advisory Committee. The Committee is in the process of helping to develop a comprehensive plan for a citywide Lead Safe Neighborhoods Program, including a more inclusive ordinance covering all lead hazards.

Councilmembers Frye and Inzunza serve as Co-Chairs of the Committee which includes experts in affordable housing, child care, property owners, apartment associations, tenant organizations, real estate, medical providers, community health centers, painting contractors, and building trades.

The Lead Poisoning Prevention Citizen's Advisory Committee is charged with developing a new ordinance specific to lead hazards, providing recommendations on what an effective lead program for the City should be, providing consultation and assistance to the City with respect to the implementation of the lead program, and helping to enhance lead education and outreach to all San Diego communities.

2. Make Lead Poisoning a Public Nuisance Under the Municipal Code so the City Attorney can take immediate corrective action when a child has tested positively for lead.

On April 30, 2002 the San Diego City Council formally adopted the Lead Safe Neighborhoods Program adding Section 54.1001 et seq. to the Municipal Code providing the City with an interim enforcement tool only to be used for child poisoning cases.

Lead Poisoning: A Major Environmental Health Problem
Childhood lead poisoning is a major environmental health problem that causes adverse effects on children's development and later success as adults. Lead poisoning can cause permanent damage to a child's nervous system, IQ loss, learning disabilities, behavior problems, and - at very high levels - coma, convulsions, and death. The most common source of childhood lead poisoning in their own homes is by lead-contaminated dust from chipping and peeling paint or home improvement projects that create lead dust. Children under the age of six frequently perform hand-to-mouth behavior allowing them to ingest lead-contaminated house dust.

Nationwide and throughout California, local governments have been actively working on ways to improve lead poisoning prevention. The first line of defense in protecting children from lead poisoning is primary prevention, which means controlling lead hazards before children are exposed to lead. However, the broad distribution of lead in the U.S. housing stock has made achieving primary prevention for all children difficult.

As a result, secondary prevention strategies continue to play a vital role in protecting children from lead poisoning. Secondary prevention entails identifying the lead-poisoned children, providing medical care and case management, identifying the source of the children's lead exposure, and ensuring that any lead hazards identified are controlled to prevent children from further exposure to lead.

The Problem in San Diego According to the 1990 census, 70 percent of the housing units in the City of San Diego were constructed before 1978, the first year in which the federal government banned the sale of residential paint containing higher than 600 parts per million of lead. Residences built before 1950 are considered to have an even higher likelihood of lead contamination. The 1990 census estimates 24% of City of San Diego's housing falls into this pre-1950 category.

According to County of San Diego, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP), 377 child lead poisoning cases have been identified in the City of San Diego between 1992 - 2000. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has set < 10 Fg/dL as the safe threshold of blood lead levels in children. CLPPP has stated that the number of childhood lead poisoning cases identified in the past 10 years is not representative of the true problem as only seven to eight percent of the children in San Diego have had their blood tested for lead concentrations.