Toledo leaders and community activists met Tuesday with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine about the alarming rise in cases of lead poisoning in our city and around the state. At least 3,500 children in the Toledo area have been poisoned to date and estimates put somewhere between 45,000-60,000 homes in Toledo containing lead paint. As a result, some leaders hope to pass a new ordinance designed to protect children from these dangers. The last effort, passed by the Toledo City Council in 2016, was ruled unconstitutional and discriminatory by a county judge. Governor Mike DeWine's visit to Toledo coincides with National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week and the first meeting of the Governor's Lead Advisory Committee which includes doctors, housing and construction professionals, and elected leaders. The advisory committee is set to meet monthly and the Governor hopes to distribute funding to communities soon. We talked with Governor DeWine about this issue on The Scott Sands Show -- click here to listen with our free iHeartRadio app.
"When you have children who are exposed to lead paint, this could be a permanent drop in IQ, it can be a permanent challenge for them for the rest of their lives," DeWine said. "It's not that they don't have a future but many times they're not going to be able to live up to the future that they would have had if they had not been exposed to the lead paint."