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The Greater Indianapolis NAACP Branch #3053, in partnership with IU McKinney School of Law, will host a public forum on January 29 to highlight the dangers posed to children by lead in the water, soil and their homes, and what steps the Hoosier state could take to reduce exposure.

A panel of physicians and health experts will discuss other communities’ efforts to protect children and improve screening and treatment options for lead poisoning at the event from 6 to 8 p.m.

Exposure of children to dangerous levels of lead was raised in a recent Indianapolis Star editorial encouraging attendance at the IU McKinney event. “There are currently no federal or state laws mandating regular lead testing of school drinking water in Indiana. And if districts do test for contaminants, they are not required to release findings to the public. That has to change,” wrote Suzette Hackney, IndyStar’s Director of Opinion and Community Engagement.

The Indianapolis NAACP held a similar forum on lead poisoning in November at IU McKinney. The focus of that event was to learn about childhood lead poisoning prevention programs in other states prior to the beginning of the Indiana legislative session.

Since then, bills addressing concerns about lead have been introduced in the Indiana Senate, according to a recent story in The Indiana Lawyer:

“Sen. Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis, is pushing for more testing of children to measure their lead exposure in her measures, Senate Bill 285 and SB 286. Also, Sens. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, Mark Stoops, D-Bloomington, and Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, have authored SB 214, which would require testing of the drinking water in every school building in Lake County.”

The event is free and open to the public in the Wynne Courtroom, Inlow Hall, 530 W. New York Street.