Every Connecticut Child Safe from Lead

Every year, the promise of a thousand Connecticut children is impacted due to lead exposure. Lead poisoning can affect our young children by harming brain development and health, causing issues throughout their lives. This includes behavior problems, poor school performance and long term health problems. Yet, lead poisoning is completely preventable.

The Department of Public Health is working in every Connecticut community to create a lead-free future for our state. We need your help. We can make a difference for Connecticut’s children by taking action now to make our state lead-free.

What are the risks of lead?

Even a little lead can do a lot of harm, especially in young children.

There is no safe amount of lead exposure. Lead poisoning can be hard to notice at first—getting your child tested is the only way to know for sure. The sooner lead is detected, the sooner you can do something about it and stop it from getting worse.

A lead-free CT will help each child to fulfill their promise.

Lead can cause behavior problems in children, speech and language delays, poor school performance, and may have long-term health effects, such as headaches, dizziness, decreased motor skills, fatigue and memory loss.

In Connecticut, Black and LatinX children, and children from neighborhoods with high poverty rates are more commonly impacted by these risks.

Lead poisoning can affect our young children by causing harm to brain development that may follow them through school years and beyond.

Children under age 6—especially small children ages 1 to 3— and pregnant persons are most vulnerable to lead exposure.

In Connecticut, children from neighborhoods with older homes and higher poverty rates are more commonly impacted by lead poisoning.

Lead affects almost every organ in a child’s body, including the brain, heart, lungs and kidneys.

How does lead exposure happen?

Lead poisoning happens when lead enters the body. Lead can enter the body by eating paint chips, breathing in dust from lead paint, or placing hands in the mouth after coming in contact with lead dust.

Homes and Buildings

Connecticut has beautiful older homes, many built before 1978, when lead-based paint was still used. In these homes, lead paint may be covering windows, doors, walls, baseboards and railings. Over time, lead paint can chip and/or turn into dust. Children can accidentally eat or breathe in these small pieces of lead paint.

Water Pipes

From the nation’s earliest days, lead was used to make pipes that carry water to homes and businesses. But when plumbing corrodes, lead can enter our drinking water.

Other Sources of Lead

Children can also be exposed to lead from old toys, furniture, pottery glazes, spices and other products from outside of the U.S., and soil tainted with lead from contaminants like paint or fuel. If parents have a job or hobby that exposes them to lead, they may bring lead into the home on their clothing.