Has the Philadelphia Lead Court reduced exposure to environmental lead?

This project will evaluate the effectiveness of the establishment of the Lead Court in November 2002 in the City of Philadelphia under the Lead Abatement Strike Team Program of the Philadelphia of Public Health. to determine if this type of innovative legal strategy was effective in enforcing the existing city health code, which would lead to improvement of children's health (by reducing exposure to lead in individual housing units) and improvement of the environment (by decreasing the number of properties with lead hazards). Quantitative analysis will look at data regarding the number of properties and details of their enforcement and Lead Court appearance history (such as documentation of non-compliance and time to compliance) and blood lead level history and trends of resident children, and their correlation with time to compliance. There will be comparisons of data from the pre-Court (1998-2002) and Court (2003-2008) time period. Deliverables for this project include journal articles, a final report, and oral and poster presentations to local, state and national legal, public health, environmental health, pediatric, and lead poisoning prevention conferences.