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Publications & Press Releases
Please visit further article and new outlets who have highlighted various environmental justice issues throughout Orange County.
Univision 34
Lead, the dangerous chemical that thousands of Santa Ana residents are exposed to
Grist
Will COVID-19 give Santa Ana officials an excuse to ignore the city's lead crisis?
LA Times: Daily Pilot
Low-income & predominantly Latino neighborhoods in Santa Ana affected by lead report
Science of the Total Environment
Social & spatial distribution of soil lead concentrations in the City of Santa Ana, CA: Implications for health inequities
LA Times: Daily Pilot
Toxic soil in Santa Ana? Community groups are working with UC Irvine to find out
Telemundo
Traces of lead discovered in Santa Ana
Int. Journal of Env. Research & Public Health
Although lead has been removed from paint and gasoline sold in the U.S., lead exposures persist, with communities of color and residents in urban and low-income areas at greatest risk for exposure. The persistence of and inequities in lead exposures raise questions about the scope and implementation of policies that address lead as a public health concern. To understand the multi-level nature of lead policies, this paper and case study reviews lead policies at the national level, for the state of California, and for Santa Ana, CA, a dense urban city in Southern California. Through a community-academic partnership process, this analysis examines lead exposure pathways represented, the level of intervention (e.g., prevention, remediation), and whether policies address health inequities. Results indicate that most national and state policies focus on establishing hazardous lead exposure levels in settings and consumer products, disclosing lead hazards, and remediating lead paint. Several policies focus on mitigating exposures rather than primary prevention. The persistence of lead exposures indicates the need to identify sustainable solutions to prevent lead exposures in the first place. We close with recommendations to reduce lead exposures across the life course, consider multiple lead exposure pathways, and reduce and eliminate health inequities related to lead.
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