ACHD's Approach to Lead

Today, the ACHD’s comprehensive lead strategy has three main parts: tracking information on lead exposure (surveillance), education and primary prevention, and intervention. This is a brief review of actions taken to date. The ACHD is committed to expanding efforts for prevention and intervention as resources become available.

Surveillance: Tracking Lead Exposure

On July 5, 2017, the County Council approved a regulation requiring universal lead testing for young children beginning in January 2018. This will help us monitor lead levels in Allegheny County children.

The ACHD received funding and hired a full-time lead epidemiologist (a scientist who looks at data and is able to find patterns to help find where lead exposure is the highest and lowest) for one year and are monitoring information on blood lead levels (BLLs) in children over time.

The ACHD has identified children with positive capillary tests for 2016-2017 who did not receive follow-up venous testing and are doing outreach.

The ACHD is identifying communities at high risk for lead exposure to target our primary prevention and education efforts.

The ACHD has collected the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) data on curb box inspections to evaluate any connection between homes with lead service lines and elevated blood lead levels in children.

The ACHD is linking birth certificates to blood level testing results to track the impact of the new universal testing regulation. 

View a map of the proportion of confirmed elevated blood lead levels by census tract in children under six years of age(PDF, 5MB) in Allegheny County Aggregated (2012-2016).

Education and Prevention

The program received funding to hire a Lead Hazard Communications and Policy Coordinator.

Workers from the ACHD's Maternal and Child Health Home Visiting program are being trained on how to talk to families about lead hazards in their homes.

The ACHD is providing information to the public on lead hazards in paint, soil, and water through numerous press channels, on the ACHD website: Lead Prevention Brochure(PDF, 799KB), our Lead Prevention page, and via pamphlets at public events.

The ACHD is working with all water systems to provide education to the public about lead in water and to provide technical assistance if they exceed the lead and copper rule. This includes joining PWSA at all their educational sessions and meeting with them regularly.

Also with the help of the ACED, we’re recruiting families to participate in the Allegheny Lead Safe Homes Program, which provides free home repairs aimed at reducing exposure to lead.

Families are encouraged to have a visual inspection of their home done to identify health and safety hazards including potential lead based paint hazards.

The Department is currently planning more outreach opportunities with key community groups.

The program is meeting with superintendents from educational organization the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and distributed materials to school nurses.

View the Health Department's Lead Prevention Brochure(PDF, 799KB).

Intervention: Taking Action

In cooperation with the PWSA, we reached out to homeowners who have had partial lead service line replacements and have had high water lead levels.

When federal resources became scarce, we continued to fund a lead inspector in the Housing program in July 2016.

The Housing and Community Environment program is conducting investigations into the cause of elevated BLL with all children who test ≥3.5µg/dL (level changed in November 2016 when it went from ≥15µg/dL to ≥10µg/dL, again in June 2018 when it went from ≥10µg/dL to ≥5µg/dL, and most recently in May 2024 going from ≥5µg/dL to ≥3.5µg/dL). The majority of the ACHD housing staff is trained to identify lead hazards and promote lead-safe work practices.

The quality of our lead paint risk assessments and testing has been enhanced to conform with federal standards.

The program received grant funding to have 10 of our ACHD housing inspectors trained to identify lead hazards and promote lead-safe work practices.

Earlier this year in conjunction with the Department of Human Services, the program successfully lobbied at the state level to change eligibility criteria for children’s access to Early Education Intervention from 10µg/dL to 3.5µg/dL.

Lead Task Force

In 2017, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald convened a nine-member Lead Task Force to tackle issues of lead exposure hazards in Allegheny County.

Chaired by the former ACHD Director Dr. Karen Hacker, members were tasked with developing a set of recommendations that would best protect public health. Task Force members include: Dr. Deborah Moss, Dr. Bernard Goldstein, Dr. Amy Nevin, Dr. Sharon Watkins, Patrick Dowd, PhD, Jeanne VanBriesen, P.E., Valerie McDonald Roberts, and City of Clairton Councilman Richard Ford (see May 9, 2017 Press Release(PDF, 182KB)).

The task force has been meeting regularly since May 2017, and has been examining public health data, reviewing studies and papers, and engaging experts in the field of lead hazard exposures to better understand the risks that face Allegheny County residents. Their report and series of recommendations(PDF, 3MB) was released in December of 2017.

Grants

The Allegheny County Health Department has received three grants to support our lead initiative:

  • Hillman Grant ($300,000)
    • Education campaign
    • Equipment to conduct home assessments
  • Public Health Improvement Fund Grant ($65,000)
    • Full time epidemiologist
  • Public Health Improvement Fund Grant ($11,550)
    • Training existing housing inspectors in lead inspection and risk assessment

In addition, the ACHD is working with Allegheny County Economic Development to implement health education and outreach activities through the remediation grant ($100,000).

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