Health chief: Use Flint woes to spotlight lead paint threat

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Indiana’s health commissioner says Flint, Michigan’s lead contamination water crisis presents an opportunity for public health advocates to shine a spotlight on the larger threat posed by lead-based paint in old homes.

Dr. Jerome Adams told about 100 people who gathered Thursday in Indianapolis for the annual Indiana Lead Forum that nearly two-thirds of Indiana’s homes were built before 1980. He says lead-based paint in and around those homes account for vast majority of Indiana’s childhood lead poisoning cases.

Adams says Flint’s water woes are terrible but present a chance for public health advocates to “ride the wave of public interest” in that crisis. He says they can use the moment to spread the word about how to lower children’s risk of exposure to lead in paint, dust and soil.