Mission Lead poisoning in children

Faced with exclusion, poverty and sickness, children are vulnerable. According to the council on employment, income and social cohesion (CERC) report, two million children live below the poverty line. The number of children in France affected by lead poisoning is estimated at around 85,000. Since 1993, Médecins du Monde has been running programmes to deal with lead poisoning. These projects aim to identify and protect children, as well as informing their families and health services.

Identifying and protecting children affected by lead poisoning

» Suburbs of Paris (La Plaine Saint-Denis), Toulouse

Activities:

Lead poisoning results from ingestion of lead from the paint on the walls of buildings built before 1948. When a building is very run down the paint flakes and the dust can be ingested by children, causing poisoning which affects the central nervous system. There is no treatment and the only solution for child lead poisoning is prevention.
In partnership with the government and various health actors, MdM’s activities are focused on three
areas:
• identifying unsafe housing and informing families to increase take-up of screening;
• following up with affected families to ensure protection of the children, whether by improvements in the building or by rehousing;
• mobilising all those involved in local health, housing and rights to develop a more effective network.

The Mission Banlieue, in partnership with the Abbé Pierre Foundation, has brought together different tools to facilitate the creation of a health, habitat and rights network in 2007. These tools will be disseminated in 2008 to all those involved.

Types of work:

• Identify urban areas at risk, inform families, evaluate the risk of child exposure, organise medical consultations and refer for screening.
• Accompanying families in the administrative and child protection processes.
• Mobilising various actors by organising meetings and developing co-ordination and liaison tools.
• Promoting the mobilisation and organisation of the necessary medical, property and legal skills to tackle this condition.

Outlook:

2007 was a transition year for the lead poisoning programme: having worked for four years in the Hauts de Seine, MdM has decided to withdraw. Investigations were carried out in several Ile de France Departments and Val de Marne – which has a lot of old housing stock and 150,000 lodgings that were built before 1949 – was finally selected.

The Toulouse programme will continue its awareness-raising/information activities for health and welfare professionals in order to increase screening of poisoned or at-risk children. These activities are carried out in the town centre and could be extended.

August 2008