Lead Free NC

Children’s healthy development depends on growing up free from exposure to toxic pollution.

Toxic pollution has a bigger impact on children than adults, for three main reasons:

• Children are smaller than adults;
• Their bodies and brains are still growing and developing; and
• Kids do things adults don’t – like putting every toy into their mouths. And they should! Making a child’s environment safe for them to test and explore promotes healthy brain development.

Black and brown children are more likely to live near pollution sites, and in lower-income communities. That means they often don’t get the same chance to grow up healthy that many white children do. We can fix this by focusing on public policy changes that make ALL kids’ environments safer, such as:

• Eliminating children’s and pregnant mothers’ exposures to lead;  
• Getting toxic hazards like flame retardants and PFAS chemicals out of children’s products; and
• Reducing asthma triggers in children’s environments.