Chicago

The City of Chicago received $350,000 through cooperative agreement EH21-2102 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in FY 2022. The funds address childhood lead poisoning prevention and surveillance programmatic activities conducted during September 30, 2022 to September 29, 2023.

The strategies focus on community-based approaches for lead hazard elimination and emphasize population-based policy intervention.

To learn more about these efforts in Chicago, contact the program below.

Chicago Department of Public Health
Lead Poisoning Prevention and Healthy Homes
333 S. State Street, Room 200
Chicago, IL 60604
Phone: 312-747-9884

Success Story 2023

Promoting the Chicago Department of Public Health Lead Poisoning Prevention Program’s Redesigned Webpage

Challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) program operations by suspending in-home visits for case management of children exposed to lead and significantly decreasing lead testing. After the local pandemic-related restrictions were lifted, the CDPH Lead Poisoning Prevention Program developed a strategy to promote lead poisoning prevention for areas that had a higher prevalence of children with reported blood lead levels higher than 5 µg/dL, the action level for CDPH. Additionally, CDPH needed to improve and create new partnerships by promoting its lead poisoning prevention services. A lesson learned from COVID-19 was how important it is for public health messaging to be accurate and easily accessible.

Intervention

The CDPH Lead Poisoning Prevention Program decided to improve the program’s digital environment, targeted messaging, and delivery methods. The lead program’s previous website was not user friendly because there were no videos or downloadable resources, and the content was very text heavy, making navigation difficult. CDPH revamped its Lead Poisoning Prevention Program website while also ensuring that it followed the branding/publishing guidelines required of City of Chicago websites. To improve accessibility and user experience, a vanity URL was created (Chicago.gov/lead). The content was updated, and the look and feel of the site was refreshed with vibrant colors to make it more appealing. The newly revamped website has information for healthcare providers about guidance to improve lead testing in areas that are high risk. The website added content such as videos, infographics, downloads, and other resources to make it more user friendly and easier to access thereby increasing awareness about lead testing.

The CDPH Lead Program successfully launched a media campaign in the Spring of 2022. The campaign centered around “Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning.” It ran during Healthy Homes Month in June 2022. This was the first time that a CDPH healthy homes–focused media campaign included a lead poisoning prevention segment. The campaign ran on social media channels along with hyperlocal media outlets whose audience lived in areas with a high prevalence of children with reported blood lead levels greater than 5 µg/dL. Additionally, the campaign included animated videos from lead inspectors who represented the community they serve.

Impact

Nearly 2 million people were reached via the social media campaign. About 178,000 users recalled the ads on Facebook, and 17,000 ads were clicked through on Linktree. Linktree is a social media landing page for linking other social media content and applications. The number of calls to the City of Chicago’s 311 request line and the Lead Program Hotline increased by 20% during the Healthy Homes Campaign.   Hotline questions were about lead testing and requests for home inspections. This new approach to messaging, the media campaigns, and the revamped website will bring more awareness about lead poisoning prevention, as well as reintroducing the Lead Prevention Program to CDPH’s stakeholders and local communities.

Funding for this work was made possible in part by CDC-RFA-EH21-2102 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the CDC; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Success Story 2021

Chicago Collaborates on Lead-Based Paint Hazards

Challenge

The City of Chicago has approximately 8,000 children under 6 years of age living in privately owned, government-subsidized rental housing provided by the Chicago Housing Authority’s (CHA) Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program who are at risk of lead exposure. Within 30 days of being notified that a child in the HCV program has an elevated blood lead level (BLL), CHA must conduct an environmental investigation. CHA and Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) must coordinate to ensure that children receive appropriate follow-up services.

Intervention

CDPH established a partnership with CHA to identify children at risk of lead exposure. CHA shared the names and addresses of all HCV-recipient children under the age of 6 years with CDPH. CDPH identified children with elevated BLLs on the CHA list and returned the information to CHA.

CHA conducts environmental investigations and enforces requirements for lead-based paint hazard remediation. CDPH will be the first jurisdiction in Illinois to do this on a monthly basis once the project has been established.

Impact

In 2018, CDPH identified approximately 150 HCV-recipient children with elevated BLLs and referred all of them for follow-up care.

Funding for this work was made possible in part by NUE2EH001376 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the CDC; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.