St Paul resident- We took our son to his 12 month old checkup and he was tested for lead. His lead level came back at an 8. We told our lanlord about this and he brought us a spray bottle, a putty knife and paint and asked me to scrape the lead paint and the repaint. I started to do what he asked us until I was informed by an ESNDC, Health Educator, to stop what I was doing as this will cause my son’s lead level to increase.
ESNDC Health Educators came to my house and did a free in-home lead assessment. The Health Educators provided education on lead hazards in the home, how to lower my son’s lead levels and how to clean the home lead safe. They also explained their SWAB service which is a free sevice by a certified lead contractor who would do up to $1575 worth of work to encapsulate and stabilize the lead hazards in our home.
In the meantime, we took our four children to a community event where ESNDC was doing free blood lead testing. We had all of our children tested and our youngest son’s lead level had doubled from an 8 to a 16 in just four weeks from the work our landlord asked me to do. Our landlord was reluctant to allow ESNDC to schedule the SWAB, but after the latest lead test, our landlord agreed to allow ESNDC to schedule a SWAB.
We are so grateful and thankful to ESNDC, all of the lead hazards in our home have been addressed safely and professionally. ESNDC did a wonderful job and they were very caring about our situation. We had our youngest son retested 4 months after the SWAB was completed and his lead level had decreased from a 16 to an 8. We are so thankful for ESNDC’s help and we truly appreciate all of their assistance and guidance through this difficult time.
Best,
S and J
ESNDC has been a great partner! -Lead and Healthy Homes, Ramsey County Environmental Health