Many cities and states are pursuing effective ways to prevent and control lead-based paint before a child is exposed.  Numerous ideas for other innovative and promising approaches have yet to be seriously considered or implemented.  Every jurisdiction stands to benefit from the lessons learned by others through universal access to a broad set of effective, replicable, primary prevention tools and strategies.  To help accelerate action to make U.S. housing safe for children and their families, CDC has funded the Alliance To End Childhood Lead Poisoning to develop Building Blocks for Primary Prevention:  Protecting Children from Lead-Based Paint Hazards (Building Blocks). 

Building Blocks will identify and describe 50-100 strategies that merit consideration by all who have a role in reducing lead and other environmental health hazards in housing.  The presented strategies will span the spectrum of primary prevention, and wherever possible, be illustrated by actual examples.  This approach will allow programs and policy makers nationwide easy access to information about multiple opportunities to advance prevention, while also providing recognition to innovative and promising primary prevention efforts already in practice. 

The Alliance is currently identifying innovative candidates, both proven and promising, to highlight as individual building blocks.  To propose a nomination, please send a brief description of the potential building block, including contact information, to Laura Fudala at lfudala@aeclp.org. While existing narrative descriptions are welcome, initial summaries of potential building blocks need be no more than two paragraphs since Alliance staff will follow up to research and develop the description of the strategies during the next few months.  For additional information, a more detailed description of Building Blocks is available at http://www.afhh.org/aboutus/aboutus_projects_buildingblocks.htm.