TOLEDO – Free lead testing events – like the one held at the Indiana Avenue Missionary Baptist Church June 13 – aims to make it convenient and fun to address the serious health risk, organizers said.
Bounce houses, a food truck and family-oriented vendors help make it feel more like a fun day out as opposed to a trip to the doctor’s office.
Toledoan Arselia Ruiz brought her two children, Aaryn, 4, and Alesanera, 7, to the testing site at the church. They already get tests at their annual pediatrician appointment, but she’s worried about the time in between.
“I’m worried they’ll get a hold of it,” she said. The home she rents was built before 1978, meaning lead paint was likely used. She’s nervous her kids will find peeling paint or chips.
“I have to watch my kids like a hawk,” she said.
“African Americans and the Latino community” are falling through the cracks in the lead crisis, associate preacher C. Jerome Graham said, adding that it comes down to either a lack of awareness or a lack of availability. Their church saw the need to do something different to address those gaps.
According to the Toledo Lucas County Health Department (TLCHD), lead exposure can affect nearly every system in the body. Because lead exposure often occurs with no obvious symptoms, it frequently goes unrecognized.
In a mobile clinic in the church’s parking lot, registered nurse Gloria Smith administered the finger-poke test – similar to a blood sugar check. Smith is also the lead case manager for the Toledo Lucas County Health Department (TLCHD).
“At any given time, there are 3,400 children with lead poisoning in Lucas County,” she said, stressing each syllable of the statistic she is working to lower.
“This is convenient, this is portable,” Graham said. “This goes to the people and makes it accessible to the people where they live at, as opposed to people having to leave their comfort zone.”
As stated by the Ohio Health Department, lead is a metal that occurs naturally in the environment, but most of it comes from human activities, such as manufacturing and mining. In the past, lead was used in gasoline, paint, metals, bullets and batteries. Lead has many hazardous health effects, and been banned or significantly reduced in these products.
Lead testing information is available at toledoleadsafe.com.
