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NEWS RELEASE
November 7, 2005
Contacts:
Robert Ford, (801) 536-4451
Manager, Hazardous Air Pollutants Section, Division of Air Quality
Donna Kemp Spangler, (801) 536-4480
Public Information Officer
(Salt Lake City, Utah) – Lead poisoning prevention will be a key topic at the 10th Annual Western States and Tribes Lead Conference, hosted this year by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Nov. 9-10 at the Salt Lake City Library auditorium, 210 East 400 South.
To highlight awareness, Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. has declared the month of November, “Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Month.” The declaration, to be delivered at the conference, emphasizes the importance of early prevention, such as getting children, preferably before the age of six, a blood test to screen for lead in their blood. “Many lead poisoned children remain undiagnosed and untreated,” the declaration states. “The most efficient way to identify children who are most at–risk for lead poisoning is to screen children in older homes, children whose parents are exposed to lead at work and children served by federal health care programs (including Medicaid) with a simple and inexpensive blood test.”
“Lead poisoning is one of the most preventable environmental exposures in children,” said Robert Ford, manager of the Hazardous Air Pollutants Section of the Division of Air Quality. “Yet more than 300,000 children nationwide still have unsafe levels of lead in their blood.”
Lead is a highly toxic metal that is found in lead-based paints in older homes built before 1978. Children are often at risk for exposure because they potentially could be playing in or around lead-contaminated dust and soil.
Dianne Nielson, executive director of DEQ, is one of the key speakers at the conference, which will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. A complete agenda can be found at: http://www.airquality.utah.gov/HAPS/LeadConference/index.htm.
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