CLEVELAND — It’s a battle decades long, with no clear end in sight: Cleveland’s crippling lead problem.
Now, local leaders are trying to get a better grip on how prevalent an issue it is with children in the city.
A Cleveland Public Health report from last October pointed out that 1 out of every 5 children continue to have hazardous levels of lead in their blood. Nearly 90% of the city’s homes were built before 1978, the year lead-based paints were banned for residential use.
The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, which received $100 million from the Cleveland Clinic, the city of Cleveland, and other major donors when it formed in 2019, just signed off on using $1 million to increase the number of children tested over the next year and a half.
Beginning this summer, that means looking at new ways to meet families where they are, administering more lead testing, and following up when the toxic metal is present.
"We need to look at where the gaps are the biggest," Dr. Robert Eick, president and CEO of Better Health Partnership, which is spearheading the testing, said. "How do you better equip someone's home or remediate a home to remove lead or make sure that's being an exposure risk? How do you do that at day cares, etc? But then also once they’ve been exposed, how do you get them connected to the care they need?"
That same report from Cleveland Public Health showed the number of children actually being tested is dropping, especially on Cleveland's east side.
"I think everybody knew the testing rates would decrease at that point in time because of the pandemic but they have not rebounded," Ayonna Blue Donald, steering community member for the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, said. "They have gone in a negative trend."
These numbers are leveling off despite efforts to address the issue through local initiatives like the Lead Safe Certification Program, launched in 2019.
The program, designed to certify rental properties as "lead safe," has proven insufficient in eliminating the problem, with some certified homes still exposing children to dangerous lead levels.
As News 5 reported last year, 11 children tested positive for lead in properties that the city had already deemed lead safe:
"It really is a fight and the community has been in this fight for 40 years," Blue Donald added. "Our children deserve better."
It's not just major players tackling the issue of lead-based paint.
Carla Moody, a lead risk assessor, along with the grassroots nonprofit Undivided Cleveland, a lead advocacy group, just finished replacing 22 windows on this home.
"The awareness is there," Moody said. "I don't see a house in sight right now that does not have lead."
Leandrow Thomas, executive manager for Undivided Cleveland, told News 5 this is the 11th property they have cleaned up, with two more scheduled.
"If Cleveland paid as much attention to sports as it does for lead affected communities, we would be a lot further for sure," Thomas said.
A multi-generational home no longer filled with fears for Debbie Calloway’s 4-year-old great-granddaughter.
"I don’t have to worry about [lead]," Calloway said. "I don't have to think about is she breathing in any lead? We don’t have to think about that anymore. How many times do I have to open and close the windows? I don't have to think about that anymore."
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard, on Facebook Clay LePard News 5 or email him at Clay.LePard@WEWS.com.
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