Lead Alert: Playing with Poison
On NJN Public Television
Thursday, October 27, at 9 pm; rebroadcast on Saturday, October 29, at 4 pm

STATEWIDE – Each year, nearly 1,000 New Jersey children are diagnosed with lead poisoning. Thousands more are diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels. And while it is true that most cases occur in inner cities, lead poisoning turns up wherever there are old homes and that means in wealthy suburban neighborhoods, too. It is a real problem here in New Jersey, which has some of the oldest houses in the nation. Crucial issues surrounding lead poisoning are addressed in the original NJN program Lead Alert: Playing with Poison which airs Thursday, October 27, at 9 pm, and is rebroadcast on Saturday, October 29, at 4 pm, only on NJN.

Lead Alert hosted by NJN’s Emmy Award-winning Health & Medical Correspondent Sara Lee Kessler, focuses on how to identify lead problems and what to do about them. Highlights of the program include a panel of seven national and local lead poisoning experts and taped video segments featuring children with lead poisoning and interviews with parents, doctors, lead researchers and housing experts. Footage for the segments was taped all over New Jersey, as well as in Pittsburgh and Baltimore. In addition to the expert panelists, Lead Alert was taped before a studio audience of 30 guests who had the opportunity to ask questions and offer insight.

“This program brings to light the dangers associated with lead poisoning and how New Jerseyans can keep their families safer,” said NJN’s Executive Director Elizabeth Christopherson. “As the program emphasizes, prevention is the best protection for children in communities across our state.”

This program also features important information about New Jersey’s new Lead-Safe Housing Initiative. The initiative provides lead abatement and emergency relocation funding as well as a Lead-Safe Housing Registry that lists homes and apartments that have been lead-inspected and certified lead-safe.

NJN has also produced a companion web site on www.njn.net that offers video clips, public service announcements, background information, a Lead Poisoning Prevention quiz, and links to other important websites, such as www.leadsafenj.org where you can get more information. Don’t miss this important opportunity to learn if you and your children are at risk. You can live safely with lead, so please tune in to get the facts.

Lead Alert: Playing with Poison studio panelists include:

Dr. Mary Jean Brown (Atlanta, GA)
Chief of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Catherine Cuomo-Cecere (New Jersey)
Director, Newark Department of Health & Human Services

Dr. Linda Jones-Hicks (New Jersey)
Director, Maternal, Child and Community Health
NJ Department of Health & Senior Services

Dr. Bruce Lanphear (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Professor of Pediatrics and Environmental Health
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Beatriz Oesterheld (New Jersey)
Lead Outreach Coordinator
Regional Perinatal Consortium of Monmouth & Ocean
Counties

Charles A. Richman (New Jersey)
Acting Commissioner, NJ Department of Community Affairs

Peter C. Scheidt (Washington, DC)
Director, The National Children’s Study

Lead Alert was produced by Janice Selinger, executive producer; Sara Lee Kessler, senior producer; Wayne Bryant, Jr. and Kate Megargee, co-producers; Cristina Lucuski, associate producer; and Samantha Goldman, production assistant. Funding for Lead Alert is provided by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs “Living Lead-Safe Initiative.” Lead Alert is web cast and archived on the NJN web site at njn.net and can be seen on cable stations throughout the state as well as on NJN’s JerseyVision and on Time Warner Cable on channel 750 in New York. Closed captioning is provided.