NCHH30 Throwback Thursday

Week 22: October 27, 2022

by Christopher Bloom

NCHH turned THIRTY this year, so we’re celebrating with a new “Throwback Thursday” photo each week.

This week features what will likely be our shortest throwback: nine days! We know it didn’t occur in our first 30 years, but we’re hopeful you’ll give us a pass this one time when you hear our rationale.

First, it’s National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. For the uninformed, National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week is an awareness event held jointly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Environmental Health, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lead Paint Program, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes. So it makes sense that this throwback should be about lead poisoning prevention.

Second, our subject is Dr. David Jacobs, NCHH’s chief scientist, who has done more for lead poisoning prevention and healthy homes than many—writing and cowriting scores of articles and book chapters on the topic, actually running HUD’s Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control (as it was known at the time) from 1995 to 2004, serving as an associate professor (adjunct) for the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health and as a faculty associate for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health…and also sharing his expertise with the World Health Organization as the director of Collaborating Center for Research and Training on Housing Related Disease and Injury
(full disclosure: NCHH is the Collaborating Center). It’s safe to say that our Dr. Jacobs likes to stay busy.

Fifty Years of Peeling Away the Lead Paint Problem was published earlier this month by Elsevier’s Academic Press imprint.

Finally, the reason for Dave’s appearance at the event nine days ago is the culmination of a project he completed at the height of the pandemic, which did occur near the end of our first 30 years. The project is a book he’s written called Fifty Years of Peeling Away the Lead Paint Problem: Saving Our Children’s Future with Healthy Housing. Here’s how Dave recently described the book:

The book marks the first time our story has been told. What we did on both lead and healthy homes over the past 50 years and what remains to be done is described. It shows how all of us—parents; scientists; public health, housing and environmental professionals; advocates; environmental justice champions; lawyers; policy analysts and thousands of others from many walks of life—developed enlightened policies and fought to implement them. It also describes what I think marks a new consensus on the connection between housing, health, and the environment.

We’re not going to try to sell Dave’s book to you. That’s not our job, you see; and if we’re being honest, it’s so new that no one on staff has had a chance to read it yet. (Can you believe we didn’t even get galley copies?) We’re just telling you that he wrote a book on the fight to end lead poisoning in the United States—what has worked, what hasn’t, and who’s helped make a difference. (You may know some of the people mentioned; some of you may even be those people.) Either you’ll be interested in ordering a copy for yourself or you won’t.

So, that’s the set-up. If there was ever a week to mention a new book on the history of lead poisoning prevention, this was the week to do it. Now, about the photo: The picture was taken October 18 at Dave’s exhibitor table at the Marriott Baltimore Inner Harbor at Camden Yards during the National Lead and Healthy Housing Conference. He arrived with 50 copies of Fifty Years and only had four remaining at the end of the session, so it was an easy trip back to his hotel room that night. In the photo, he’s sharing a laugh with our good friend and board chair, Elyse Pivnick as he inscribes  her copy. Elyse has served as Director of Environmental Health for the Center for Energy and Environmental Training for Isles, Inc. since 2010, the same year she joined our board of directors.

We hope Elyse finds the book both interesting and insightful, and we’re looking forward to receiving the copies we ordered, which—we hope—will be signed by the author….

NCHH’s David Jacobs signs a copy of his new book for Elyse Pivnick at the National Lead and Healthy Housing Conference, Marriott Baltimore Inner Harbor at Camden Yards, on October 18, 2022.

See You Next Week

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this throwback in honor of our 30th anniversary. Remember that we’ll post a new throwback every Thursday morning at 9:04 a.m. on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter through May 25, 2023. If you’ve missed a previous post, you can always reminisce with us via our NCHH30 gallery.

Christopher Bloom is NCHH’s communications and marketing manager. He joined NCHH in 2008 after nearly a decade in the real estate industry. In a previous role at NCHH, he coordinated a national Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) training program, one of the most successful in the nation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Textual Studies from Syracuse University.