National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week: October 24-30, 2021

WELCOME TO NATIONAL LEAD POISONING PREVENTION WEEK 2021
Join us during this year’s National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week as we raise awareness about lead poisoning.

National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (NLPPW) is October 24-30, 2021. NLPPW aims to help individuals, organizations, and state and local governments to work together to reduce childhood exposure to lead.

How will you make the greatest impact during CDC, EPA, HUD, and WHO’s week-long call to action to end childhood lead poisoning?

NLPPW Events

It’s difficult to keep track of the many informative events happening around the United States during Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. For your convenience, NCHH is working diligently to compile all as many in one place as possible and adding more each day from federal, state, and local governments, advocacy groups, and other groups. See our full event schedule here.

For events beyond the borders of the United States, visit the World Health Organization’s registered events page.

Join Us on October 26 for the 2021 #NLPPWchat

Mark your calendars! NCHH will host its fifth annual Twitter chat for National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. ET (12:00 to 1:00 p.m. PT). NCHH’s Twitter chats are informative, thought-provoking, and even fun! All are invited to participate, but early registrants will receive the chat questions and other materials first.

Register for the Twitter chat here.

The #NLPPWchat aims to:

  • Discuss lead poisoning prevention and response
  • Raise awareness about the sources of lead exposure
  • Share helpful initiatives, policies, and resources

Additional information, including chat questions and formatting information, will be available here in October (the file downloads automatically).

NOW AVAILABLE: The Wakelet archive of the 2020 #NLPPWchat is now available. With the Wakelet tool, we’re able to present the full chat in a more organized way that still allows users to like, retweet, and reply to the original posts. View the Wakelet archive of the 2020 #NLPPWchat.

If you missed any of our previous chats and would like to be notified about future social media events, contact Christopher Bloom.

Official NLPPW2021 Campaign Materials

NOW AVAILABLE: Use the following official agency materials to promote National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week 2021 in your community:

  • Partner Information Kit – This document, available in English and Spanish, 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 in English or Spanish by sharing messaging on social media using the hashtags #LeadFreeKids and #NLPPW2021. [docx]
  • Posters – Create instant impact with these large (1677 x 1679), bold images, available as PDF or PowerPoint (PPTX) files! The PPTX versions may be customized to include an organization’s logo and event information.
  • Flyers – Create instant impact with these large, bold images, available as PDF or PowerPoint (PPTX) files! The PPTX versions may be customized to include an organization’s logo and event information.
  • Icons – Add these official NLPPW icons to your outreach materials.
  • Web Banners – These banners are available as 160 x 600 vertical, 728 x 102 horizontal, and 403 x 403 square orientations. Add them to your website.
  • Event Banners – These banners are designed to be used at your NLPPW events. When printed, they should measure six feet by two feet.

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 for 2021 follow below:

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 for 2021 are the following:
  • 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 will post messages on social media corresponding to each of the daily themes shown below. If you’re on Twitter, share messages sent from these social media accounts: @HUDgov, @HUDHealthyHomes, @EPA, and @CDCgov.

HUD is getting an early start in 2021 with a kickoff webinar on Friday, October 22, so mark it on your calendars now! We’ll post the the agency event schedule once it’s announced.

  • Friday, October 22, 2021: Events TBA
  • Monday, October 25, 2021: Events TBA
  • Tuesday, October 26, 2021: Events TBA
  • Wednesday, October 27, 2021: Events TBA
  • Thursday, October 28, 2021: Events TBA
  • Friday, October 29, 2021: Events TBA

Note that we may still be showing some links to resources from the prior year’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. We’ll replace these with updated links for 2021 as soon as they become available.

International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week of Action

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week of Action runs concurrently with awareness events in the United States. See the world and check out resources related to this event. This year’s theme is “Working Together for a World Without Lead Paint.”

Planning an Event? 
Share information about your event with others worldwide by registering your activity on the World Health Organization (WHO) website.

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:

  1. Planning Events
    Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes
  2. Effectively Engage Traditional Media
    Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes
  3. Building a Case for Elected Officials
    Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes
  4. Sharing Your Stories
    Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes
  5. Social Media
    Webinar | PowerPoint: slides and notes

NLPPW Blog Archive

NEW FOR 2021! Earlier 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.

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.

As a special bonus, we also published a consumer guest blog in 2018, “When ‘Special’ Equals ‘Sick,'” which illustrates why National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week is so important. Find it here.

10 Policies to Prevent and Respond to Childhood Lead Exposure

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.

Resources

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.