“Lead poisoning is not a
political issue, this is a moral issue and we will do what
is necessary to rectify this issue and save our children,”
said Bishop Robert Culp, pastor of First Church of God and
co-chairman of the Black/Brown Coalition.
Since 2016, when the first
lead ordinance was passed, noted Rev. Otis Gordon, pastor of
Warren AME Church, an additional 1,000 children with
elevated blood lead levels have been diagnosed, which only
includes those who have been tested.
Lead-based paint is the
most common source of lead exposure for young children and
much of Toledo’s older housing stock still contains
lead-based paint. An estimated 3,500 children are afflicted
by lead poisoning in the Toledo area, it is estimated, and
between 45,000 and 60,000 homes contain such paint.
Children afflicted by lead
poisoning will suffer health and cognitive development
issues, and a life-time of social, educational and economic
effects that will significantly impair their life outcomes
and ability to succeed.
The 2016 ordnance approved
by City Council was struck down by the courts as being too
biased against some homeowners. Since then, according to
George Thomas, an attorney with the Advocates for Basic
Legal Equality, enough work has been done to correct the
legal deficiencies that the city administration can now go
forward with the task of bringing together the interested
parties to hammer out the new legislation.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine
also commemorated National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week by
holding two events with members of his Lead Advisory
Committee – one at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital
and one in Toledo at Marshall STEMM Academy, a Toledo Public
School.
“We do not have to wait,”
wrote Sykes in the days before the press conference held by
local organizations. “We and our legal counsel, ABLE, have
carefully reviewed the current court case. Nothing prevents
the City from passing a new ordinance that simply avoids the
legal issues in that case. Lead poisoning doesn’t wait for
frivolous law suits and neither can we. It’s our
understanding that the city’s law department has also
concluded that City Council may proceed.”
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