Mayor Justin Bibb’s office recently posted a position for a senior strategist to oversee the city’s efforts to combat lead poisoning that would report to the mayor. One of the issues the new cabinet member will have to tackle is the plummeting numbers of children screened for the toxin during the pandemic.
In 2019, Cleveland City Council passed an historic law that requires landlords to have rental properties built before 1978 certified as lead safe. But the process is off to a slow start, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and bureaucratic roadblocks for hiring city staff required to enforce the mandate.
The pandemic has made diagnosing lead poisoning and fixing hazards in homes even more difficult than it’s always been, as families are skipping pediatric appointments out of fear, and some lead inspectors and short-staffed health departments have had to delay or halt in-home work.
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