Lead Abatement Program Receives Harvard Award
On Wednesday, December 8, the 1999 Harvard Award for Excellence in Children's Health was presented to the Bowdoin Street Health Center for for its work to prevent lead poisoning in Dorchester's children.
The award is a competitive, $10,000 award sponsored by the Harvard Center for Children's Health, Children's Hospital, and the City of Boston.
The Bowdoin Street health center identifies children with high levels of lead in their blood by testing at their regular check-ups. Children become lead poisoned by lead dust and paint from older homes. In Boston, 67% of the houses were built before 1950 when homes were almost always painted with lead-based paint. Lead paint has been banned in the US since 1978.
Children ingest lead through a number of natural childhood behaviors. Lead distributes itself though the home environment as dust sloughs off painted surfaces. Lead is ingested when children put soiled hands or toys in their mouths during normal play.
The Bowdoin Center has set up a Lead-Safe Yard program to reduce the danger of lead-contaminated soil in Dorchester yards. The center makes tainted soil in yeards less accessible by covering it with rocks, grass, or wooden decks.
"The only way to prevent lead poisoning is to have your home deleaded," said Adela Margules, executive director of the Bowdoin Street Health Center, who accepted the award at a ceremony at Boston City Hall. Unfortunately, complete deleading is an involved process that can cost from $5,000 to $35,000. "But children need to be kept safe right away," she said, "so we help families find ways to make their homes safer while they wait." The Lead-Safe Yard Program creates safer environments for children for $1000 per home.
Pictured in a Dorchester yard that has benefited from the Lead-Safe Yard program are, from left to right, Joseph Carillo, vice president, Community Health Services, Children's Hos-pital and member of the Harvard Center for Children's Health Ad-visory Council; Marie St. Fleur, state representative; Adela Margules, executive director, Bowdoin Street Health Center, which received the award; and Charlotte Golar Richie, director, Neighborhood Development, City of Boston.
