National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week: October 19-25, 2025
WHAT’S THE STATUS OF NATIONAL LEAD POISONING PREVENTION WEEK 2025?
October 6: Now in its second week, the government shutdown has created uncertainty surrounding the status of this year’s National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. Here’s what we recommend doing while we wait for the official materials.
October 20: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just released materials for National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. We expect to have them linked here by 4:30 p.m. this afternoon.
National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week 2025
Join us during this year’s National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (NLPPW) as we raise awareness about lead poisoning.
National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week is October 19-25, 2025. NLPPW aims to help individuals, organizations, and state and local governments to work together to reduce childhood exposure to lead.
The 2025 NLPPW theme is Healthy Communities Start with Lead-Safe Homes.
How will you make the greatest impact during CDC, EPA, HUD, and WHO’s week-long call to action to end childhood lead poisoning?
International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week 2025
WELCOME TO INTERNATIONAL LEAD POISONING PREVENTION WEEK 2025
Organized as an annual event by the World Health Organization (WHO), International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW) aims “to draw attention to the health impacts of lead exposure, highlight efforts by countries and partners to prevent childhood lead exposure, and accelerate efforts to phase out the use of lead in paint.” International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week runs concurrently with the federal government’s National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week.
The official theme for International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week is “No Safe Level: Act Now to End Lead Exposure.”
WHO’s campaign is divided into the following three important messages:
- Learn the risks: Raise awareness about the health effects of lead exposure.
- Join the action: Highlight global efforts to protect children.
- Eliminate lead paint: Urge countries to eliminate lead paint through regulation.
NLLPW Events
It’s difficult to keep track of the many informative events happening around the United States during National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. For your convenience, NCHH is working diligently to compile all as many as possible in one place and adding more each day from federal, state, and local governments, advocacy groups, and other groups. You’ll find some events listed on our event schedule here. You can also email the details of your event(s) directly to us.
Federal Agency Activities
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency collaborate with their partners every year on a national outreach effort to observe National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (NLPPW). The three key themes follow below:
- Get the Facts: Learn about the hazards of lead;
- Get Your Home Tested: Learn how to minimize risks of lead exposure by hiring a certified professional to test older homes for lead; and
- Get Your Child Tested: A simple blood test can detect lead.
HUD, EPA, and CDC typically post messages on social media corresponding to a particular daily theme. If you’re on X, share messages sent from these social media accounts: @HUDgov, @HUDHealthyHomes, @EPA, and @CDCgov.
Materials
Official NLPPW Campaign Materials
UPDATE (OCTOBER 20): Due to the shutdown, the federal government did not release NLPPW materials until today. For your convenience, we’re including the newly available materials here.
- Partner Information Kit – This document helps partners prepare and promote activities or events at the local level. It’s intended to provide consistent messaging and ideas for implementing local events and lists available resources. [pdf]
- Sample Social Media Package – Actively spread the word about National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week by sharing messaging on social media using the hashtags #LeadFreeKids and #NLPPW2022. [pdf]
- Flyers – Create instant impact with these large, bold images, available as PDF files! A PPTX version also exists which may be customized for translation into other languages or to include an organization’s logo and event information.
- English | Arabic | Chinese (Simplified) | Chinese (Traditional) | French | Haitian Creole | Korean | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish | Tagalog | Vietnamese [pdf]
- Modifiable version [pptx]
- Icons – Add these official NLPPW icons to your outreach materials.
- English | Arabic | Chinese (Simplified) | Chinese (Traditional) | French | Haitian Creole | Korean | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish | Tagalong | Vietnamese [png] White text with blue background
- English | Arabic | Chinese (Simplified) | Chinese (Traditional) | French | Haitian Creole | Korean | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish | Tagalong | Vietnamese [png] Blue text with transparent background
- Web Banners – Add a banner to your website for increased visibility during NLPPW to help promote your events. Each zip file contains two jpg banners, one horizontal (630 x 160) and one vertical (160 x 600).
- English | Arabic | Chinese (Simplified) | Chinese (Traditional) | French | Haitian Creole | Korean | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish | Tagalog | Vietnamese [pdf]
- Event Banners – These banners are designed to be used at your NLPPW events. When printed, they should measure six feet by two feet.
At a Glance
ILPPW Materials
WHO’s social media graphics for ILPPW are shown below.
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UNICEF has also created social media graphics for lead poisoning prevention, shown below. Right-click to save an image. Customizable PowerPoint versions are here.
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Crowdsourced NLPPW Promotional Materials
The Chautauqua County Health Department has graciously donated templates for lead poisoning prevention awareness. Plug your county’s address, telephone number, and QR code into these templates and get the word out. Shown below are Chautauqua’s versions for illustrative purposes; your download will be a PDF template without Chautauqua’s branding or contact information.
Additional Federally Sponsored Resources
Happy, Healthy, Lead-Free Me!
New Hampshire’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program recently published this board book, which is entertaining and educational for both children and their parents. PDF versions of the book are available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Nepali, Dari, Swahili, Chuukese, and Somali. The official page also includes a read-aloud video.
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- Bulk orders: Happy, Healthy, Lead-Free Me! is available to order in cases of 40 books directly from the book’s official webpage. For questions related to purchasing, quotes, invoicing, or required vendor approval processes, email info@cribsforkids.org.
National Lead Information Center (NLIC)
Maintained by the EPA with funding from HUD, the National Lead Information Center is an valuable tool for contractors, housing health professionals, and the general public. NLIC agents can answer questions on a variety of topics related to of lead-based paint topics. Call NLIC’s toll-free number: 1-800-424-LEAD (5323).
NCHH Webinar: Making an Impact!
NCHH and the National Safe and Healthy Housing Coalition have created a webinar entitled Lead Poisoning Prevention Week: Making an Impact! Watch the webinar to learn:
- Clear actions and tools to plan a successful event
- How to engage traditional media effectively
- Simple steps to use social media to create buzz
- How to engage and invite elected officials
- Tools to easily include families impacted by lead and elevate their stories to increase understanding, awareness, and political will
Webinar resources:
- Planning Events
Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes - Effectively Engage Traditional Media
Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes - Building a Case for Elected Officials
Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes - Sharing Your Stories
Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes - Social Media
Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes
NCHH’s NLPPW Blog Archive
In 2025, parent advocate Caitlin Szontagh sent us Seven Years After Exposure, Living with Lead Poisoning Is a Struggle to Gain Services and Respect. It’s a follow-up to her original blog, When “Special” Equals “Sick,” which we published in October 2018. These blogs illustrate why National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week is so important.
In 2021, NCHH published a series of blogs related to lead poisoning. Whether you’re a parent, a contractor, or a policymaker, we have something for you here.
- Healthy Household 101: The Dangers of Lead-Based Paint (Christopher Bloom, NCHH)
- When Home Improvement Leaders Are Busted for Lead Violations, Does Anyone Learn Anything? (Christopher Bloom, NCHH)
- Healthy Household 101: Why Consumers Should Understand the Basics of the RRP Rule (Christopher Bloom, NCHH)
- How Municipalities Can Leverage RRP Requirements to Advance Lead Poisoning Prevention (Amanda Reddy, NCHH)
- Why Contractors Should Embrace and Market the RRP Rule (Christopher Bloom, NCHH)
For National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week 2019, NCHH published a blog on the topic of reviewing and overhauling existing codes and policies to improve enforcement of lead poisoning prevention measures.
- NLPPW 2019 Blog: Tactical Thinking: Housing Codes and Lead Poisoning Prevention (Sarah Goodwin and David Jacobs, NCHH)
For National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week 2018, NCHH published a suite of guest blogs written by four of our 2017 Lead Poisoning Awareness Community Mini-Grant award recipients. These blogs are a great way to learn about what kinds of activities are possible for an organization with a smaller grant (in this case, $5,000) as well as pointers on how to create your own successful event.
- NLPPW 2018 Blog 1: NCHH’s Lead Awareness Community Grant Prompts a Year of Action in Grand Rapids, Michigan (Paul Haan, Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan)
- NLPPW 2018 Blog 2: Implementing a Successful Grant Award (Joyce Theard, St. Louis County Department of Public Health)
- NLPPW 2018 Blog 3: Will the Children Lead Us Out of Lead? (Marie Hunt, Southern United Neighborhoods)
- NLPPW 2018 Blog 4: NCHH Mini-Grant Helps to Fund a Lead Summit and Coalition in Philadelphia (Colleen McCauley, Public Citizens for Children and Youth)
As a special bonus, we also published a consumer guest blog in 2018, “When ‘Special’ Equals ‘Sick,'” which . Find it here.
10 Policies to Prevent and Respond to Childhood Lead Exposure
The The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, released a seminal report in 2017, 10 Policies to Prevent and Respond to Childhood Lead Exposure. The Health Impact Project is a national initiative designed to promote the use of health impact assessments (HIAs) as a decision-making tool for policymakers.
The 10 Policies report is an excellent resource to use during National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. Learn more about it here.
Additional Related Resources
While the following materials aren’t specific to National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, they are popular materials that we’ve shared with many who were interested to learn how lead exposure affects them and their loved ones.
- The Lead-Safe Toolkit for Home-Based Child Care [url; NCHH, 2019]
- 10 Policies to Prevent and Respond to Childhood Lead Exposure [url; NCHH, 2017]
- A Shower of Benefits: Drinking Water and Healthy Housing [blog] [url; NCHH, 2017]
- Threats or Promises: Which Way for the Trump Administration on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention? [blog] [url; NCHH, 2017]
- Lead Poisoning: Focusing on the Fix [pdf; Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 2016]
- Issue Brief: Childhood Lead Exposure and Educational Outcomes [pdf; NCHH, 2012]
- At a Glance: Childhood Lead Exposure and Educational Outcomes [pdf; NCHH, 2012]
- Childhood Lead Poisoning: What You Should Know About Your Child’s Blood Lead Test Results [pdf; NCHH, 2008]
- Envenenamiento con plomo en la infancia: Lo que used debe saber sobre los resultados de la prueda de plomo de su niño [pdf; NCHH, 2015]
- Fact Sheet: Toys and Childhood Lead Exposure [pdf; NCHH, 2007]
- Fact Sheet: Testing for Lead in Consumer Items for Children [pdf; NCHH, 2007]
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Latest page update: October 24, 2025.






















