Monroe County Childhood Lead Poisoning Primary Prevention Program (CLPPPP)

The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) has been providing technical assistance and evaluation support to the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Childhood Lead Poisoning Primary Prevention Program (CLPPPP) since the inception of the initiative in 2007. Each of the 15 grantee programs operates within a unique local landscape that impacts the distinct challenges they face and successes they accomplish.
As a CLPPP Program grantee, the Monroe County CLPPPP program seeks to achieve five goals:
1. Identify housing at greatest risk of lead-based paint hazards.
2. Develop partnerships and community engagement to promote primary prevention.
3. Promote interventions to create lead-safe housing units.
4. Build lead-safe work practices (LSWP) workforce capacity.
5. Identify community resources for lead-hazard control.

Since 2007, Monroe County CLPPPP has worked with property owners to remove lead-paint hazards from housing in the following high-risk ZIP codes within the city of Rochester: 14604 through 14615 and 14619 through 14621. Within these areas, most properties are identified and inspected by City of Rochester code enforcement officers with funding provided by the program: 93% of all properties inspected since the program began were inspected by code enforcement. Other properties are targeted for inspection by county health department staff. These include homes of pregnant women, units with children with blood lead levels between 8 and 14 μg/dL, homes of refugees, and homes of Department of Human Services clients (e.g., tenants living in homes receiving state housing assistance) who have children aged six years or younger living in a home where City of Rochester cited interior hazards that were cleared three or more years ago.

Code enforcement officers conduct a visual inspection for deteriorated paint above de minimis levels on the interior and exterior and on bare soil if it is found. They perform additional dust wipe sampling in all units that pass the initial visual inspection. At properties inspected by the program itself, EPA-certified risk assessors examine the targeted properties, as described above. These inspections use elevated blood lead protocols, including visual inspection and XRF (x-ray fluorescence) measurement of lead on painted household surfaces.

Lead paint dust created during renovation work can substantially increase children’s exposure to lead. The program works to address this problem by training landlords, homeowners, and contractors in lead-safe work practices. This training focuses on reducing the amount of dust generated during paint-disturbing work, containing any dust generated, and thoroughly cleaning the jobsite after work to remove any lead-contaminated dust.