EPA Lead Program Grant Fact Sheet City of San Diego EPA has selected the City of San Diego, California for a National Community-Based Lead Outreach and Training Grant. The City of San Diego collaborated with a number of community-based organizations and partnered with several national organizations to form the San Diego Lead Safety Project (SDLSP) to reduce lead exposures and lead poisoning. The project will: • Conduct specialized outreach on non- housing sources of lead in border communities • Provide training in lead-safe work practices to professionals who work throughout the city • Train local home improvement store staff and local family daycare providers so they are knowledgeable about lead safety measures • Provide outreach and education to realtors about lead-related laws and regulations, from the Federal real estate disclosure to assorted local requirements • Offer more specialized lead training to a local Youth Empowerment Program and to a Painter's Apprenticeship Program • Create inter-agency online links to relevant sections of the city's Lead Safe Neighborhoods Program website, thereby fostering greater inter-agency awareness of and involvement in lead safety issues and providing increased access to lead safety information to the public at large. EPA's National Community-Based Lead Grant Program EPA grants are helping communities with older housing reduce childhood lead poisoning. The funds enable communities to educate those at risk, provide lead-awareness training and develop local ordinances aimed at lead abatement. The National Community-Based Lead Outreach and Training Grants are aimed at promoting efforts to prevent or reduce childhood lead poisoning. In 2007 The Agency awarded more than $3.1 million in grant dollars to fund this ambitious program. Grant recipients range from city health departments to universities and colleges, community organizations, religious groups, and other non-profit organizations. EPA's lead program is playing a major role in meeting the federal goal of eliminating childhood lead poisoning as a major public health concern by 2010. Projects supported by these grant funds are an important part of this ongoing effort - and we are seeing their effects. By 2002, the number of U.S. children with elevated blood-lead levels dropped to 310,000 from 13.5 million in 1978, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For more information about EPA's Lead Program, visit www.epa.gov/lead or call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800- 424-LEAD. 2007 National Community-Based Lead Grant Program Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics www.epa.gov/lead ------- |