Do you have questions about lead in your home, your soil, your kids? We are here to help!

The Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance is thrilled to announce the launch of the new OMAHA LEAD INFORMATION HOTLINE. This number will allow you to directly choose and connect to the services that you need to keep safe from lead in Omaha.

1-877-LEAD-411 (1-877-532-3411)

University of Nebraska–Lincoln Douglas/Sarpy Extension is excited to be a part of the Omaha Health Kids Alliance and is encouraging Douglas and Sarpy county residents to take advantage of the lead education resources found through the hotline.

Working in partnership with the
Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance

Omaha Healthy Kids

Living Safely With Lead Program

Education about how to live safely with lead is crucial to preventing lead poisoning.

Maintenance of Older Homes focuses on safely doing repairs and projects in a home that may have lead-based paint.

This free program offers a quick review of lead-safe practices for outside jobs, inside jobs, and carpet removal. Schedule a speaker for your organization today.

Only 30 Minutes for a Safer Home.

Contact Information: Connie Lowndes Lead Education Program 8015 West Center Road Omaha, NE 68124 Phone: 402-444-7804 clowndes2@unl.edu

In late 1991, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services called lead the “number one environmental threat to the health of children in the United States”. There are many ways in which humans are exposed to lead; through air, drinking water, food, contaminated soil, deteriorating paint, and dust. Airborne lead enters the body when an individual breaths or swallows lead particles or dust once it has settled. Before it was known how harmful lead could be, it was used in paint, gasoline, water pipes, and many other products.

Old lead-based paint is a significant source of lead exposure. Harmful exposures to lead can be created when lead-based paint is improperly removed from surfaces by dry scraping, sanding, or open-flame burning, or from lead dust off of painted surfaces. High concentrations of airborne lead particles in homes can also result from contaminated soil tracked inside.

Lead affects practically all systems within the body. At high levels it can cause convulsions, coma, and even death. Lower levels of lead can adversely affect the brain, central nervous system, blood cells, and kidneys. The effects of lead on fetuses and young children can be severe. They include delays in physical and mental development, lower IQ levels, shortened attention spans, and increased behavioral problems. Fetuses, infants, and children are more vulnerable to lead exposure than adults since lead is more easily absorbed into growing bodies, and the tissues of small children are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead. Children are more likely to have higher exposures since they are more likely to get lead dust on their hands and then put their fingers or other lead-contaminated objects into their mouths.

- return to top -