The state’s Department of Health and Human Services is kicking off a series of events this week targeted at preventing childhood lead poisoning.
The department is offering free lead testing for blood and toys today. The first session runs this morning from 10:00 until 1:00 on the statehouse lawn in Concord. That will be followed-up by another session at the Manchester Health Department this afternoon from 1:00 to 5:00.
In Manchester, blood testing will run from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, while toy testing will go from 2:00 to 5:00 pm.
Also this week, DHHS will screen the documentary film “Mislead: America’s Secret Epidemic.” In the movie, doctors, parents, and patients describe the effects of childhood lead poisoning.
“My landlord sanded the home that we lived in, with a six-month old baby," one woman says. Another remembers, "The dust is just billowing off the neighbor’s house, and I’m screaming at the workers, ‘That’s lead paint! Stop!’”
The documentary will be screened in Manchester, Littleton, and Concord this week. DHHS reports more than 60-percent of New Hampshire homes were built before the federal government banned lead-based paint in 1978.