CEHN, NAFCC, and NCHH Launch New Lead-Safe Toolkit for Home-Based Child Care
Media Contacts: Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, nobot@cehn.org, 202.543.4033 ext. 14; Christopher Bloom, cbloom@nchh.org, 443.539.4154
WASHINGTON, DC (October 18, 2019) — With funding from The JPB Foundation, the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN), the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), and the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) have launched the Lead-Safe Toolkit for Home-Based Child Care.
There is no safe level of lead for children. Adverse health effects, including IQ deficits and learning and behavioral problems, occur at low levels of exposure to often invisible sources of lead.
The Lead-Safe Toolkit offers a variety of resources to help home-based providers reduce lead hazards in their child care homes. Toolkit contents include:
- Poster for display in family child care home.
- A list of science-based, user-friendly lead prevention resources.
- Lead prevention policies and worksheets, with easy-to-follow steps for finding out if lead hazards exist in the home and what to do to reduce possible exposures.
The Lead-Safe Toolkit is one component of a two-year project, titled Protecting Children from Lead Exposures in Family Child Care Environments, to help home-based child care professionals prevent children’s exposures to lead in paint, dust, water, soil, and consumer products.
U.S. child care facilities care for over 11 million children younger than six years old, three million of whom are cared for in family home settings by approximately one million paid child care professionals. Many of these providers are unaware of the possible lead dangers in their homes’ paint, dust, soil, and water.
By targeting family child care providers, the Protecting Children from Lead Exposures in Family Child Care Environments project has a unique and crucial opportunity to provide home business owners with tools and resources they need to protect their own families and their child care kids from the dangers of lead.
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About the Children’s Environmental Health Network
Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) is a national nonprofit organization, based in Washington, DC, that has been the leading voice and champion protecting children from environmental hazards for over 26 years. Among a variety of programs, CEHN is working to enact true transformation in the environmental health of children in child care though its Eco-Healthy Child Care® (EHCC) program. EHCC is the sole national program working for the last nine years to educate, train, and support child care professionals on low- to no-cost actions they can take to improve the safety and health of their facilities by reducing exposures to environmental hazards.
About the National Association for Family Child Care
The National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) operates out of Salt Lake City, UT, and Washington, DC. It is the only professional association dedicated specifically to promoting high-quality early childhood experiences in the unique environment of family child care programs. NAFCC is a nonprofit membership association that works on behalf of the one million family child care providers operating nationwide and has lead the family child care accreditation program for over 25 years.
About the National Center for Healthy Housing
The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) is the preeminent national nonprofit dedicated to securing healthy homes for all. Since 1992, NCHH has served as a highly regarded and credible change agent, successfully integrating healthy housing advocacy, research, and capacity building under one roof to reduce health disparities nationwide. Follow NCHH on Twitter (@NCHH) or LinkedIn or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HealthyHousing.