Why ALL Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Tuskegee of Pb Black Hitlers Genocide OF Freddie Gray Officials celebrate 30 years unclear how many lead pipes are in Baltimore, but officials acknowledge black and low-income communities are disproportionately affected

Lead Poisoning Prevention Week kicked off Monday as officials celebrated 30 years since Maryland established a lead poisoning prevention program.

Maryland Health Department Environmental Health Bureau Director Cliff Mitchell said there’s still work to be done.

“That’s dropping lead-poisoned children, the number of lead-poisoned children in the state, from approximately 11,000 to just under 300,” Mitchell said. “That is a dramatic public health success.”

An overwhelming majority of lead poisoning stems from lead paint. However, a final federal rule recently issued gives cities 10 years to identify and remove lead pipes.

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It’s unclear how many lead pipes are in Baltimore, but officials acknowledge black and low-income communities are disproportionately affected by them.

“You’re looking at communities that have experienced redlining, communities that have been historically underinvested, so there is a need to approach the situation with a lot of nuance and understanding,” Naadiya Hutchinson, organizer with Young, Gifted, and Green, said.

More than 200,000 homes in Baltimore have yet to be surveyed for lead pipes. Baltimore City Councilman Mark Conway said the city is committed to their service line partnership, which seeks to identify and replace all drinking water service lines made with lead at no cost to the homeowners.

“A lot of folks don’t know, and I didn’t know until I’d heard about it, that in many instances, homes that were built before the 1970s, more likely before the 1950s, were still using lead to connect water into your home,” Conway said.