by Chuck Hoven

   (Plain Press July 2025) In a June 11^th Opinion piece in The Plain Dealer titled “No more delays or excuses. Clean up the toxic lead now – before more kids are poisoned”, The Plain Dealer editorial board reproduced a chart from the City of Cleveland that shows “Nearly one in five Cleveland children continue to have elevated levels of lead in their blood.”

   The Editorial Board of The Plain Dealer then said, “It is the crushing and hard-to-explain reality in Cleveland that despite more than a decade of talk, research, dollars raised, laws changed, poisoned kids tested, nonprofit partners activated, and plans refined to quell the toxic monster of lead poisoning in city homes once and for all, we seem to have gotten nowhere.”

   The focus of the editorial is the failure of the City of Cleveland to clean up the lead or contain it in Cleveland homes that predated the banning of lead paint in 1978. It notes the City of Cleveland failed to spend down in time a federal grant given for lead abatement and risked losing it. This is not the first time that has happened.

NEWS ANALYSIS

   The Plain Dealer editorial points to the Plain Dealer’s past efforts to bring attention to the issue of lead poisoning, saying, “Nearly a decade ago, then Plain Dealer reporters Rachell Dissell and Brie Zeltner set out to examine every facet of this scourge in their path-breaking series, “Toxic Neglect.” They found that 10,000 Cleveland-area children had already been poisoned over a five-year period, setting them “on a path to failure before they’ve even finished kindergarten.” And their compelling and detailed chronicling of this disaster galvanized the community, raising more than $100 million to fix the problem once and for all.”

   The City of Cleveland’s efforts to make homes safe from lead were happening prior to the “Toxic Neglect” series in the Plain Dealer. One example is outlined in a July 10, 2008, article in the West Side Sun News by reporter Ken Prendergast titled, “Making homes safe from lead wins City a $100,000 prize.”

   The article notes how the $100,000 prize from DuPont paint company would be used by the City of Cleveland.

   “Cleveland will use the $100,00 grant award for its Get the Lead Out project. Cleveland Department of Public Health will partner with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health to target 50 families of children that are under 6 years old and who also are eligible for federal assistance.

   “Residences housing these children will be eligible for minor repair, paint stabilization and related maintenance to make these homes lead safe. Families will also receive lead education and blood-lead level testing as part of the project.”

   While it is important to address lead poisoning of our children that results from the uncontained lead paint in older homes in Cleveland, there is another way to address the issue of lead poisoning of Cleveland’s children that has not been given as much attention.

   The reference in the West Side Sun News article to “lead education” gives a hint. It seems that over the years that “lead education”, while present in the arsenal of the City of Cleveland, it has not been given the prominence of efforts to make housing lead safe.

   One of the aspects of “lead education” that needs to get more attention is the role diet can play in reducing the level of lead poisoning in children. Parents, childcare workers, schools, and community organizations can all play a role in assuring that children have proper nutrition to help prevent lead poisoning.

   The role of proper nutrition in preventing children’s bodies from absorbing lead, has been known for a long time. Families of children growing up in Cleveland before 1978 can attest to the attention to eating foods high in iron to avoid lead poisoning. During an era where there was lead, not only in the paint, but also in the gasoline, it was important for children to receive a proper diet. Cartoons like Popeye promoted the eating of foods high in iron. Most children from that era could remember Popeye saying, “I’m strong to the finish, because I eat my spinach. I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.”

   Nutritionist have urged that children in lead filled environments to not only get proper amounts of iron in their diet, but also calcium and vitamin C.

   A 1993 article in the Ohio State University Extension’s newsletter by Case Western Reserve University Graduate Public Health Nutrition Student Jennifer Hutchinson titled “Keep the Lead Out” outlines the benefit of a good diet in protecting children from lead poisoning.
   Hutchinson says,

“A good diet can also help protect your child from lead poisoning. Lead absorption increases on an empty stomach. If some nutrients, such as calcium and iron, are low in the diet, your child can absorb more lead.

“Each day your child needs two or three cups of milk or other calcium-rich foods, such as yogurt, cheese, chicken, and figs. Vegetables that are good calcium sources are greens, broccoli, kale and baked potatoes.

“A child needs iron-rich foods, daily. Some high iron protein foods are beef, pork, liver, fish, peanut butter, and enriched and whole grain cereals and breads. Vegetables with high iron are broccoli, greens, spinach, and lima beans. Refried beans, black beans, prunes, prune juice, raisins and apricots also provide iron.

“Eating foods rich in vitamin C along with iron-rich foods is the best way to make sure iron is used by the body. Foods rich in vitamin C include oranges, orange juice, grapefruit, grapefruit juice, strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, tomato juice, brussels sprouts, green and red peppers, broccoli, raw cabbage, cauliflower, and potatoes.

“A good balanced diet, including some of the above foods, can help protect your child from lead poisoning. Small toddlers and preschool children need to eat small amounts of food often throughout the day. Be sure to offer snacks that have iron, vitamin C and calcium. Some good snacks are milk, cheese, pudding, small sandwiches, peanut butter, crackers, raw vegetables, graham crackers, fig newtons, and dried and fresh fruits. Remember to wash your hands and your child’s hands before all meals and snacks.

“Taking a few precautions and eating a good diet can make all the difference in the life of your child. The consequences of lead poisoning can last a lifetime, so be aware now!”