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By JOHN RICHARDSON, Staff Writer Saturday, April 21, 2007

The Portland Tenants Union and other groups will start a door-to-door campaign to warn residents about lead and other hazards in and around their apartments and homes.

"There's a lot of groups working on the policy and legislative side," said Ed Democracy, treasurer of the tenants union. "The need we saw was a grass-roots neighbor-to-neighbor community health network."

Democracy and others announced the effort on Friday and said volunteers will start going door-to-door next weekend. The tenants union is working with the Environmental Health Strategy Center and the United Somali Women of Maine, which is leading a similar effort in Lewiston. The effort is called Healthy Homes and Gardens Season and is expected to continue into October.

Volunteers working in teams of two will knock on doors in neighborhoods around the Portland peninsula, where there are many apartments in many of the city's older homes. Homes built before 1978, when lead paint was banned, can have levels of lead dust that can poison children.

Heather Curtis, Democracy's wife and president of the tenants union, was living in an apartment in an old home in 2000 when she discovered that her two daughters had elevated levels of lead in their systems. Her younger daughter, then 1 year old, had extremely high levels, she said. Curtis now feels lucky to have tested the children before they showed signs of poisoning, she said.

"They tested the apartment and the apartment had really high levels," she said. Lead dust had collected in the carpet of the room where her kids played.

Many residents don't know about lead and other hazards in their homes, and many landlords don't know there are grants available to control the hazards, according to Curtis and other advocates. Volunteers will survey residents and provide information about testing for lead and reducing risks of exposure to lead and other toxins.

Knocking on doors in downtown neighborhoods "is really getting information to places where it might not have reached and where there is often lead in the house," said Amanda Sears, associate director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, a non-profit organization in Bangor.

While lead is considered a common and immediate threat, the door-to-door effort also is intended to raise awareness about household hazards such as pesticides used on lawns and gardens. The groups said they believe chemical exposure contributes to learning disabilities in Maine children and adults.

Portland's City Council issued a proclamation on Friday in support of Healthy Homes and Gardens Season.

The proclamation states that "toxic substances from our homes and gardens are damaging our environment and concentrating in our food chain and our children's bodies," and that "alternatives to toxic substances used in our homes and gardens are readily available."

Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324, or at: