A Multisectoral Approach to Prevention of Lead Poisoning in Hungary: Lessons Learned and Potential for Replicability Elsewhere

Abstract

Hungarian and American occupational and environmental health professionals are collaborating in a research and demonstration project designed to prevent lead poisoning in Hungary. Using a multisectoral approach, the project has three phases: data collection and review, risk communication, and facilitation of program and policy development. First, the project team reviewed relevant data of many types through a workshop at which commissioned papers were presented, key-informant interviews, and a survey of knowledge, attitudes, and practices. The team then conducted a multifaceted risk-communication program to disseminate information about lead hazards in general and what had been learned about lead exposures and lead poisoning in Hungary. It presented training workshops for workers exposed to lead at work and for groups serving as “mediators” who could affect others' behavior, such as nongovernmental organizations, labor unions, public health nurses, pediatricians, teachers and students, and coordinators of the Hungarian Healthy Cities Project. It also conducted a campaign of “concentrated action,” using a variety of communication approaches directed to car owners, pregnant women, mothers of small children, and others, in order to convey knowledge and change attitudes, emphasizing emotional appeals. Project leaders will organize a multi sectoral working group to develop, coordinate, and implement an over ail activity plan aiming to reduce lead pollution. The approach developed and used in this project provides a model for preventing lead poisoning that may be transferrable or adaptable for use for preventing lead poisoning and other environmental health problems elsewhere.

Keywords:

• lead poisoning
• policy
• public health
• Hungary
• environmental health