Earlier today (12/23) 3M unexpectedly delivered 12,000 Lead-Check test kits to Lead Safe America! [Yes you heard me right TWELVE THOUSAND! Thank you 3M! My office is now FULL of boxes!] 5 pallets of product arrived at my office doorstep! It was amazing!
We need your support to get these and other resources to families. [This pic is just of what is in the hall outside my office, the rest is stacked floor-to-ceiling in my office!]
Another “Christmas Present” that also arrived in the mail today… Emmy-award winning journalist Rob Reynolds (reporting for Al Jazeera English) sent me a DVD of the recent news piece he did of the issue in October 2013 for the international news market. It’s a comprehensive, thoughtful and thorough news piece that uses my family’s story to frame the issue and covers everything from the importance of lead-safe work practices to the concern for lead’s impact on criminality and, most important, touches on the fact that this is an “everyone” problem – for anyone living in an historic home – not just low-income families in ethnic minorities (a myth that too many news stories, reports and studies emphasize and re-emphasize.)
I’ve posted the video link below. Please watch this five minute piece and share!
Please also consider supporting the work of the Lead Safe America Foundation with a pledge or tax-deductible contribution this last week of 2013. $5 helps us send a test-kit and information to one family, $100 helps us get kits and information to at least 20 families (and also gets you a “Special Thanks” credit in our film if you can donate before the end of the year!)
You can make a backer pledge on Kickstarter: Here’s the link to watch the trailer to our film and make a pledge …or you can make a tax-deductible contribution directly through the Lead Safe America website, link here. -Thank you!
Catherine Brooks says
Very powerful and so personal a story backed by frightening scientific studies. Seeing and hearing about the real life results on her poisoned kid and her lifelong fears was chilling.
The news clips showed program workers dry scraping that old paint in a housing development. The workers seemed to be well protecting themselves with safety gear. But the wind flapping the plastic sheeting away from the ground was disturbing to me. Didn’t that make the paint chips get into the yards around the house where kids play? I guess we have a long way to go to get home remodelers, whether paid contractors or DIY owners, to believe that they are now the ones who have the most impact on controlling the lead dust in the neighborhoods. I hope this story gets seen and understood by them RIGHT NOW!
Tamara says
Thanks for posting Catherine!