Speaker 1 00:01:06 Hello, this is <inaudible>. I could be here from Somali link radio at K F a. I, we do this show most of the time life for the best four years. And here the shows, again, being engineered by Annie, our producer DECA is not in today. She'll be joining us hopefully next week. Uh, today we have a wonderful guest and, uh, we have a wonderful unimportant topic, which is a poisoning element in our households called lead. Uh, we are talking to Rochelle Pliska, who is the director of education and outreach at sustainable resources center in our Minneapolis here. And, uh, before we talk about this important to start having conversations about this important topic, uh, which should every w I believe everyone should be concerned about lead poisoning, and, um, we should actually need to listen and think about, um, about this information and how we're going to share with our communities.
Speaker 1 00:02:18 As you listen to this and share with other families and neighbors, and find the resources you need at sustainable resources center in Minneapolis. But first of all, let me share with you that again, emerge is emerge. Community development is given all these trainings. Again, are about career trainings, such as the health care pathways, such as nursing, nursing, assistant, basic life support, um, also malaria manufacturing and metal fabrication training, as well as commercial driver's license, or what's now CDL. Um, that's been very popular in the east African community, um, also financial wellness and all those trainings are free for the community and for everyone. So if you want to contact emerge and see the Riverside opportunity center 6 1 2 4 2 5 4 7 1 8, please share that information again with your neighbors and the young people who wants to build a career for life. Let's come back to our topic. Rochelle, how are you?
Speaker 2 00:03:35 Very good, good evening.
Speaker 1 00:03:39 Thank you very much for, um, coming onto the show to reach out to the community about, um, this important topic that really impacts our children and our families. And, uh, I can tell you I've been working with the east African community for a long time. Um, there are not that much information about lead. I mean, you see a lot of written material from Hennepin county and, and it being county health care from people centered clinic from community centers, but we need to do more of that. And also more talking about this. My first question is what are the common sources of lead? And before I ask you that what's led.
Speaker 2 00:04:23 Sure. Yeah. So, and just to back up a little bit about who we are just a quick introduction about who I am and what we do here at sustainable resources center, you gave a great explanation of, but we do have our programs that include in addition to lead and lead hazard control, we do have weatherization and, uh, and training. So anybody wants to know about healthy homes and, um, and, and lead poisoning prevention. Uh, we also offer lead testing at events so we can test children five and younger, uh, pregnant women, nursing women, we do free in-home visits. So if families want to identify, uh, what lead hazards they have in their home, we certainly could, uh, go and do a free in home visit. And then we assist them into grant enrollments through Hennepin county, city of Minneapolis. They have grants that are available and we can assist families in that process.
Speaker 2 00:05:21 But, um, yeah, I, you know, PA led is still, um, although we've done, there was great efforts that have been done to decrease lead poisoning and children it's still is a public health hazard. Uh, October was, uh, we celebrated national lead poisoning awareness a week, and we always want to say, it's not just an October, but we want all year round to create awareness and education and resources for families. Um, so let is a heavy metal and it's used for throw history. Um, in the Roman days, they used to put led into wine to preserve the wine and to make it taste sweet. Okay. So even as late as the, as early as the Roman days, um, lead has been used, um, right now it's basically being used for construction and, um, and it was banned in 1978 for residential use. Um, however it is a neurotoxin.
Speaker 2 00:06:26 So that's where this lead poisoning comes into play. Um, although it was used for many different things, um, it was banned in 1978 for led use for in residential homes, the neurotoxin, meaning that it's nervous, that's affecting the nervous system, the brain, and then toxin, meaning that it's a poison. And so this is not normal to our body. It is a poison and there is no according to CDC guidelines, there is no safe lead level and allowable for our bodies. And even a small amount of lead can build up in the body and cause lifelong learning and behavioral problems.
Speaker 1 00:07:10 Thank you. I also read, um, that Jeremy, um, a lot of European countries and Canada were the first to ban. Um, it took us a long time to really follow suit.
Speaker 2 00:07:23 It really did. Yeah. While, while Europe was Banyan led of lead based paint in around the 1930s, it took the us a long time until 1978 to ban lead based paint for residential use. It is still being used for construction and industrial use. So, yeah,
Speaker 1 00:07:46 Yeah, but the most common source of lead exposure is from where
Speaker 2 00:07:52 The most common lead exposure is from lead based paint. So again, um, it's used in many homes that were built before 1978, the older, the home, the more high risk that lead is in the home. It was started weaning out waning out in the 1960s, 1970s. But, um, it, you know, the children who may pick, uh, or eat paint chips or, um, the high friction surfaces like the windows, um, every time you open and close those old windows dust is created. So that lead dust is of high risk and the children who are crawling on the floor or putting, um, the hands to their mouth and breathing in perhaps, um, they are susceptible then. And so that's where the most common source of lead hazards are. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:08:46 I also saw that it also, it could be found in a water, um, from, uh, led by pipes and also metal.
Speaker 2 00:08:56 Yes, exactly. So we're very grateful here in Minnesota and especially, you know, our love, our lead pipes, um, are, are good. We do not have, um, MDH has not had any child poisoned through the source of water. It's primarily children who are getting poison through lead based paint. Um, but it also can be found in the soil because lead was also in gasoline and until like in the 1990s, um, so lead contaminated soil, especially near busy roadways or factories, um, and that you stay emit, led lead from gasoline, has settled into the soil. And so children can also be exposed through lead in the soil. Um, there's also also very interesting, uh, that you mentioned the, the metal toys toys painted, um, with lead based paint or, um, you know, some jewelry or glazed led, glazed pottery, or porcelain, um, some imported cosmetics and herbal spices and remedies also making me contain lead,
Speaker 1 00:10:08 Um, that can lead both to be treated.
Speaker 2 00:10:14 Um, you know, the best way to treat lead poisoning in a child is to find the source and then remove it from their environment. Um, when a child has high lead level in their body, they are required, um, a medicine called key lady, but that is very, very high preventative measures are the, the key. Okay. So we're talking about the, the way to find out if your child has lead poisoning is to get tested. And, um, and that is, um, really important because most children who are lead poisoned do not seem sick. Okay. Unless their lead levels are very high. There are no symptoms with lead poisoning and therefore the effects of a lead into child may not be observed for several years after they have been exposed to lead. So the only way to really find out if your child has been led, has lead poisoning is to get, um, a simple blood test. And there's two ways that you can do it. One is the, by a finger, okay. And it's called a capillary, oh, poke a capillary test. And then, um, the other method is through a Venus test and they, this should be done at their primary Clare clinic, um, between their first year, 12 months visit. And then the second year visit that is the recommended testing.
Speaker 1 00:11:38 Um, but who are the, uh, the most, you know, um, uh, who could be more likely to get lead, uh, in the household? What is the age limit?
Speaker 2 00:11:52 Yeah, that's a great question. There are three main groups, okay. Of people, three main populations that are at high risk. And the first is children, children under six years old are the most vulnerable for lead poisoning. Remember we said it was the neurotoxin. So it's, it's affecting the brain, the nervous system and the brains and nervous systems of children, especially children at very young age, under six years old are still developing at rapid rates. Um, they are the ones that are the most susceptible, just all they're crawling on the floors that may contain lead dust. They're putting things in exploring their world through putting things in their mouth and exploring that. So the children are the most susceptible. They're the highest risk groups. The second risk groups are pregnant and nursing mothers, and they can also, um, pass along the lead poisoning to their fetus, through the placenta and women who are also nursing may pass the lead, um, to their child through breast milk. And so
Speaker 1 00:12:59 That was the second group. And then the third group of, uh, most, the population most at risk for lead poisoning are workers. Okay. The workers whose occupations are in construction, let's say, or painters, and they're working on older homes, maybe remodeling. And, um, so when, whenever they're scraping the old base pain then and painting over, so they're in construction, that is a high risk for them, but also it is a high risk for their families because what they do is they can bring all of that lead dust back home to them and their clothes and their hair and their shoes. And, um, this can cause the children to be exposed to, to lead. Um, in fact, we had one example of a family where a child was lead poisoned, and we didn't know where that the source was, but it was because the child was playing in the father's tools in the garage and they were playing and the, the tools had lead dust on, on it. And so that's how the child got poisoned. Um, you know, uh, I know a lot of kids, including my daughter who loved to bent at home and, um, it's a five pieces of paint. Then it's 20, then it's a hundred. Tell me about let issues in those beans that kids buy from stores.
Speaker 2 00:14:25 Right. Um, you know, it's the us, uh, the, the paints, I mean, this is an issue. And most of the products, um, that are made here are led free. Okay. You really do have to, um, identify with what are the objects or what are the toys or products that are being imported because perhaps other countries don't have the same standards as, as the us. Um, I would say that if you, if you are, um, concerned about anything with lead issues in it, you can certainly call us sustainable resources center and we can offer free testing on that product. Um, I was just at somebody's home, a Latino family, and we, uh, they drink out of a ceramic, uh, it was pottery. It was a club and it was beautiful and it's a beautiful glazed mug and they were drinking hot cocoa out of it. And a lot of times they cook with these beautiful plates of pottery.
Speaker 2 00:15:31 And I said, you know, maybe we should test that item pine on you bring all your plates and all your products, um, cut mugs to our agency. And she came with a big box. We tested everything, everything tested positive for light. And so if families want to have their spices tested cosmetics, anything that's important that they receive from their countries and, um, and including paints because we know that paints can also contain, um, led I am led hazards. Um, most often the items that are produced here in the U S have hot the high standard. So I don't want to alarm anyone. Um, but I do want to make that concern and, and certainly offer the resource for families that don't know if something, an item has lead in it, they can bring it to us. We can schedule a time and we can test those items.
Speaker 1 00:16:29 Thank you. And, you know, um, what is the difference between high rises, like where I live in, see the Riverside on homes would, which one is more likely to have model, you know, led
Speaker 2 00:16:46 Great. That's, that's really good. Excuse me. Um, mainly, uh, the high rises like Cedar, Riverside that has been tested. We have tested that, uh, complex. They have higher of standards of checking. Okay. So it's, uh, it's going to be checked when it was created and Wynwood was built constructed, and the windows also, um, were not wood windows and move up and down. Right? So we're thinking of the homes that are highest risk are older homes that perhaps don't have that high regulation standard, right. Perhaps duplexes or rental units that are fourplex triplex duplexes that sometimes fall between the cracks that aren't highly regulated. But the ones that the thing to look at is pre 1978, if the year was when the ask yourself, or if someone should ask themselves, when was your home built? Okay. Everybody should know when their home or their apartment or their condo was, was built. It was built in the 1930s or forties or fifties. That's, you know, a level of concern. If you have windows that move up and down, okay. That's creating high friction, the wood windows, also the pulleys, if you see on the side that it's pulleys, it was a police system that for sure are the original windows. So the windows that are crank or the windows that are side to side, they open side to side, or only partly those are not, uh, of concern for, for lead hazards.
Speaker 1 00:18:28 Yeah. That's good to know that. Um, is there anything else that, uh, lead comes from except painting?
Speaker 2 00:18:39 Um, yeah, like I said, we have, um, uh, covered, you know, lead based pain it's in the soil. Um, we want to make sure that people, you know, the imported cosmetics or candies spices, all of that, um, they can also be found in certain hobbies. So for example, if people are doing stained glass yeah. They're using a lead solder to, to, to adhere to the glass. Right. Um, but also some jobs, so that also you could be exposed to it. So battery manufacturing, recycling, uh, target the sh the, the fishing lures, the fishing weights, um, or even there could be lead in bullets. Okay. And so all of those other objects could also contain lead in, in those objects.
Speaker 1 00:19:40 Thanks for the jail. Um, I know it's a nervous system based, um, issue, but just to make sure for the audience, is it trust me the book?
Speaker 2 00:19:53 No, it's not. Um, so it's lead affects, uh, goes into the bloodstream. Okay. And that's where it goes through and then goes to the nervous system and everything, but it is not contaminant. Right.
Speaker 1 00:20:08 Great. Okay. Um, what is the Bri cautious that you would advise before we go to our, our last, not last question, but two other questions. Um, what would you use to chest as a preventive measures for families to look out,
Speaker 2 00:20:29 Right? Yeah. Um, it is preventable. So that's the key message is that families, once they know what the lead poisoning is all about, and if they think that they have an older home with the windowless and all of that, there are preventable measures. And there are some simple things that families can do to protect their children from getting lead poisoning. Number one is identify where some of these sources are isn't in the windows, it isn't in the soil, maybe an old garage or things like that. We can wash the window, Wells, wash the surfaces, the floors. We can make sure that if a toy falls down, we can wash that toy wash hands regularly before eating or after they're outside plain, and just keep children away from all that chipping and peeling paint. If the older, the, the home is if it's lead based paint, it'll look like alligator skin.
Speaker 2 00:21:24 Okay. Like the cracked skin of an alligator. So that's what it gives it. It's characteristic of what it looks like. Okay. And if you see that sort of alligator skin and it's chipping, your paint is chipping and peeling, then have the children stay away from that and give us a call. Um, nutrition is also a key element to lead poisoning prevention foods that are rich in calcium iron and vitamin C would add here would, um, would absorb to the lead and get that committed. Okay. So good nutrition is important for a child's diet. Um, and then avoiding the use of the, like some of those traditional important medicines or cosmetics that may contain lead. Um, and then certainly using sustainable resources center as a resource as well. And we can offer free and home visits to identify if led is in your eye, if it's in your home. Um, and we can also do lead testing for children, and we can also help families enroll into grant programs.
Speaker 1 00:22:34 And when you say enroll into grant, um, uh, grant, uh, programs, I would like to ask you more questions about that after we hit, after we hear this message,
Speaker 1 00:23:02 Welcome back. If you're just joining us this east, Abdirizak be here from Somali link radio at K F a I 90.3 FM. You can always listen to K F a I
[email protected], no matter where you are in the universe. Um, and I'm sure you've got to find a lot of interesting programs, whether it's about, uh, books and authors, whether it's about country music, Somali music, Latino music, Caribbean music conversation is politics, democracy. Now you name it Ethiopian programming in I'm Herrick or everything you need
[email protected]. Um, if you are just joining us, my guest today is Rachelle Pescara. She is the director of education and outreach of sustainable resource center. It's a very resourceful center, uh, in Minneapolis, especially about our health issues, including lead poisoning. And today our topic is talking about lead poisoning in our homes and how to prevent that. That is the most important part of this conversation is to prevent before it happens.
Speaker 1 00:24:26 And, you know, as Michelle said, they do harm facilities for free trainings, and they will probably come to your home, help you and Michelle. Uh, I've started with Michelle. I really love it that the family you feel at home and it's a cultural family just like mine, and they have their traditional dishes and cups. And they've been using this for a long time. And when you physically, you notice if something, and you ask the family to bring their, all their, you know, um, uh, dishes and cups, uh, to your center to be tested and they tested positive. That's really? Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:25:11 Yeah, yeah. Um, you know, I've been working at sustainable resources center for 13 years and I, I really love my job. The best part of my job is going to visit families and really identify what needs they have when we do home visits, we take a holistic approach, and it's not just led that I'm looking at, I'm looking at other healthy home issues that that family might need help with. Um, and part of the grant programs that we have, I know we sort of left off about what is the assistance or what is the grant enrollment process? And this is a wonderful opportunity for families to get help and assistance in not only improving their home. Okay, but also preventing lead poisoning from occurring in their children. So this, these are two funded, um, grants through Hennepin county and the city of Minneapolis, a sustainable resources center works with both of these grant resources.
Speaker 2 00:26:14 And, um, we help the families. We do, we had first do an in home visit. So we, uh, spend time educating the family. We have a, if we don't have staff members that are bilingual, we would have a, uh, hire an interpreter to come and do the education visit. Um, at the, the home visit, we do education. We try to talk about other healthy home issues that might be happening like mold and mildew. Um, some types of slips, trips falls. Maybe sometimes they need help with, um, pest management. If they have a lot of mice or roaches or bed bugs, we can address a lot of things at this home initial in-home visit. Um, the air is there is an application, the people who qualify are families with, uh, homes that are built before 1978, they have to have children under six years old or visiting children.
Speaker 2 00:27:16 Okay. Um, and then they have to income qualify. So there are standards for, uh, households must be like 80% or less of the area median income. And so we can discuss that. Um, we, we identify there's an application process and they have to provide some income verification. And then we do without the grant is awarded between it's up to $12,000. So depending on the size and the scope of the project, um, the family, the home can be awarded up to $12,000 to include window replacement of led painted, uh, windows or other kind of, uh, painted surfaces. So, and this is just a wonderful grant program that is available.
Speaker 1 00:28:07 Um, do you also sometimes collaborate with our organization is, and our clinics to do, because I see also you do a lot of farm great things such as, uh, Babbitt shows.
Speaker 2 00:28:21 Yes, yes, we do. We try to be creative and we try to reach all levels of audiences. And so one of our puppet shows it's based off the Sesame street led away program. And, um, yeah, in fact, we have done three puppet shows in the last two weeks, um, just because at different daycare centers. So we can go into people's the daycare centers, we do a puppet show and, um, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a fun way to get the message out to a younger population.
Speaker 1 00:28:58 That's really nice. Um, lastly, tell us about the resource again, available for the community from the sustainable resource center, from your aunt's.
Speaker 2 00:29:11 Great. Yes. So I think that if anyone is just has any questions about lead poisoning, lead poisoning prevention, or hazards that they might have in their home or apartment or anything, they could just give us a call. Okay. On our phone number is (612) 872-3282. And it's well, our website is www S R c-mn.org. Okay. So we can answer any questions. We would love to do home visits because that's really how we talk to the families. We understand, you know, the situation, their living situation, their environment, and then we can, uh, address led, but also other healthy home issues, um, that they might have. So, and then also if the family needs a lead test and perhaps they're not affiliated with the primary care clinic, we can assist them in, in getting into a primary care clinic. But also we can do a quick finger test as well at the home visit.
Speaker 2 00:30:19 So those are some of the quick resources. If family, if people in general, if agencies want to partner with us, we're always looking for partnerships and doing presentations, um, about lead poisoning prevention. We could do training, we're doing a, um, we always do lead trainings of, to, for staff. Um, if the, if there's an organization that their staff go out to home visits, we can train them to help us identify lead hazards. And then we can, we can get those referrals that come in. So we really do, we do partner with clinics and other agencies, and they send us referrals and we can follow up with those families that they're, that are their clients. And, um, so it's, it's, uh, it's all about getting the awareness out there, education and then partnering with agencies so that we can continue to receive referrals.
Speaker 1 00:31:19 Thank you very much. That's really, uh, your work is very impactful and saves lives at the early stage. And I will definitely share the information and our conversation with all the organizations and clinics I know in the community would like. Thank you, Rochelle. Thank you very much. That was Rochelle. Um, Valesca, who is the director of education that's of education and outreach at sustainable resource center and to visit the, the organization go to w w w dot S as in Sam, R as in Robert, C as in Kathy hyphen, minnesota.org. And you will find all the information is, and probably the language you speak. Thank you, Rochelle.
Speaker 2 00:32:14 Excellent. Thank you so much. Thanks so much for having us. Thank you for coming.
Speaker 1 00:32:18 Thank you.
Speaker 2 00:32:19 Bye-bye bye
Speaker 1 00:32:38 We'll. Come back. This is Abdirizak could be he, if you just join us, we had a wonderful program with Rochelle telescope, who is the director of education and outreach at sustainable resources center. We were talking about the importance of, of lead poisoning prevention, and they do really provide a lot of free services, including visiting your home, evaluating if you have any lead poisoning happening there or any lead left behind. Um, so they do not only in your household, but also yours, all your material there. So it's really great and free in case you live in our old house, who was, that was built before 1978. Um, you probably might have some issues and they will be able to help you at sustainable resource center. They are also grants up to $12,000 for those homes that has led, uh, uh, banks all over the place, including replacing windows.
Speaker 1 00:33:46 But first you need to reach out to this office at, um, this, uh, the, uh, sustainable resource center. I have a different one number, which is, which is 6 1 2 8 7 0 0 7 2 9. So please reach out. And one more time, if you are looking for training or to build a career out of one job, if you like to get free trainings, we do have those trainings at emerge, community development, and those are career trainings, such as healthcare pathways, healthcare pathways, our nursing assistants and nursing assistant refresher program and basic life support programs. Also, you can also apply for free and get this program, uh, as a career building in manufacturing and metal fabrication trainings, as well as CDL programs, commercial driver's license, and just go to emerge community development website and set up an appointment and, or sign up for a program if you need the number for that program. Uh, it is somewhere, but it's on the website. Uh, and we thank you for listening.
