Thursday, March 13, 2008 

Cathe Bullwinkle
798-5275

Picente Announces Lead Primary Prevention Pilot Grant

     Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente, Jr. was joined today by Utica Mayor David Roefaro to announce a three year initiative designed to significantly reduce the incidence of childhood lead poisoning in ‘high risk’ areas of the county.  This will be funded through a Lead Primary Prevention Pilot Grant awarded to the Oneida County Health Department.

     “The Oneida County Health Department is one of only eight health departments statewide to be awarded the funds amounting to more than 273-thousand dollars in grant Year One,” Picente said. In a collaborative effort with the City of Utica ’s Urban and Economic Development department, Codes Enforcement and the Safe Housing Coalition of Central New York, the county health department’s Lead Program will focus on the problem of dangerous lead levels in approximately 200 houses in the city’s Cornhill neighborhood in 2008.” 

     “The success of this initiative will improve the quality of life for the estimated 1000 children 6-years of age and younger living in these houses that were built before 1950, and result in incalculable savings to Oneida County taxpayers in terms of long-term health care and social service costs that might otherwise be paid out over the course of the children’s lifetimes,” Picente said. 

     As part of the Lead Primary Prevention Program, the following will be provided for all babies born in the ‘high risk’ area in 2008 in order to protect them until age three from the toxic effects of lead-laden dust:

Ø     Blood lead testing every six months for a 2 year period.

Ø      Assisting landlords in identifying their rental units that are at ‘high risk’ for contributing to lead poisoning.

Ø      Providing landlords in the ‘high risk’ area with free Lead Safe Work Practice Training, allowing them and their maintenance staff to safely complete work in their units.

Ø      Providing landlords with specialized cleaning services including HEPA vacuuming to decrease lead dust to safe levels after necessary repairs are made.

Ø      Providing tenants with special cleaning kits and instruction to assist them in maintaining low lead dust levels once specialized cleaning has been completed.

Ø      Providing landlords with special high efficiency furnace filters designed to trap lead laden dust in units housing new babies.

Ø      Providing tenants with primer ‘touch up’ kits to repair new paint chips until landlords can make permanent repairs.

Ø      Assisting landlords in finding funding to make required repairs to their units.

     All landlords owning property in the City of Utica will be invited to a lead poisoning prevention seminar; all Utica landlords will be offered free 8-hour Lead Safe Work Practices training and the loan of HEPA vacuums as part of this program.          

     In addition, the pilot grant will provide for the training of 24 low-income residents in lead safe work practices creating employment opportunities with local construction and cleaning firms.           

    Public Health Law permits the Director of Health to designate an area as ‘high risk’  for lead poisoning and allows for the issuance of a Commissioner’s Order deeming any housing that is not repaired as a  “Public Health Nuisance.”  Utica Mayor David Roefaro has directed the city’s Codes Commissioner to work closely with the Oneida County Health Department in providing targeted codes enforcement in the ‘high risk’ area.

     “We’re cognizant of the fact that the city’s aged infrastructure lends itself to this serious health risk and we want to insure that every effort is made to maximize the success of this program,” Roefaro said.  He added, “With more than 95% of Utica ’s housing having been built before 1970, the challenge to provide lead safe housing is formidable; but through cooperative initiatives like this pilot grant program, it is not insurmountable.”    

    The County Executive was joined by Oneida County Director of Health, Nicholas A. DeRosa, Utica Mayor David Roefaro, City Codes Commissioner Goran Smiljic, Director of Development for the City of Utica , Regina Clark and Director of Urban and Economic Development, Robert Sullivan for a press conference held on the 16-hundred block of Dudley Avenue .

     According to the County Executive , the initiatives outlined in the first year of the pilot grant will begin by May 1^st and be completed by September 30^th.