Earlier this fall, Mayor Justin Bibb released Executive Order 2024-03, which explains how to identify and handle lead hazards in Cleveland homes. The aim of addressing the hazards shifted from lead safety to lead abatement to ensure children are not poisoned. Previously, landowners’ properties must have passed a clearance exam or risk assessment to receive lead-safe certificates.
For a property to pass a clearance exam, a lead professional must gather dust and swipe samples of friction surfaces (e.g., windowsills and doorways). If lead was not present at the time of the clearance exam, the property passed. However, the same surfaces that were examined can have lead the next day. Subsequently, children who lived in lead-safe homes that passed only clearance exams were still being poisoned. Alternatively, lead risk assessments identify lead hazards and create pathways to address them.
The executive order directed the Department of Building and Housing to require lead risk assessments instead of just a clearance exam to earn a lead-safe certificate.
The executive order directed the Department of Building and Housing to require lead risk assessments instead of just a clearance exam to earn a lead-safe certificate. The three overarching goals of the Executive Order are:
- Public disclosure of risk assessments- Risk assessments and remediation plans for rental properties will be disclosed to the public and tenants living in those properties so that more lead hazards are identified and addressed.
- Reduce lead paint poisonings- This goal will be achieved by creating pathways to lead abatement and offer resources to help property owners.
- Abatement- There will be program changes that will encourage identification and plans to address lead hazards permanently.
Due to the release of the executive order, the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition and The City of Cleveland are closely collaborating to address these issues. Lead abatement and interim controls will be implemented to ensure properties become lead-safe and lead-free.
The Cleveland Department of Public Health’s Data Brief examines the lead crisis
The executive order was also a result of The Cleveland Department of Public Health’s data brief, which shows that children in Cleveland are still being lead poisoned at an extremely high rate. Since 2019, the percentage of children who live in Cleveland with elevated blood lead levels has been stable. Alarmingly, about 700 children in both the east and west sides of Cleveland suffered from elevated blood lead levels in 2023.
Additionally, lead testing rates were lower on Cleveland's east side than on the west side. Cleveland has the highest percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels compared to similar cities such as Toledo, Detroit, and Cincinnati. These shocking statistics show that there is still much work to be done to make sure fewer children in Cleveland are being poisoned.
More information on the lead safe certification and abatement can be found on the City of Cleveland’s website.
Next steps to work on abatement
Strategies on how to reduce the number of lead poisoned children are in progress. The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition’s public policy committee will give recommendations to The City of Cleveland on how to amend the 2019 Lead Safe Law to target resources and enforcement to reduce lead poisoning in Cleveland. The City of Cleveland recently updated its frequently asked questions about the lead safe certificate and processes. More information on the lead safe certification and abatement can be found on the City of Cleveland’s website.
