2024 New England Regional Lead and Healthy Housing Conference

May 2 – 3, 2024

AC Hotel Portsmouth Downtown Waterfront

299 Vaughan Street
Portsmouth, NH

The New England Regional Lead and Healthy Housing Conference provides an opportunity to examine New England state and regional programs and regulatory issues and their impact on successfully carrying out lead poisoning prevention, lead inspection, abatement and healthy housing programs at the local level. National experts will discuss new laws and initiatives that affect New England-based programs, and will share programs and ideas from other parts of the county that New England groups might consider adopting. It’s an excellent information gathering and networking opportunity for public health and housing officials, HUD grantees, health educators and advocates. and inspectors, risk assessors and abatement practitioners.

With program participation by state regulators and program directors, and federal agency officials, the conference attendees will have the opportunity to learn first-hand of new and proposed regulations, and to examine successful strategies in carrying out lead and healthy housing programs.

All in all, the conference provides a unique opportunity for health and housing officials, health advocates, and lead service companies to come together to gain knowledge, exchange ideas and network with one another.

Conference Supporting Organizations

• The New England Regional Chapters of the Lead and Environmental Hazards Association
• The New England Lead Coordinating Committee (NELCC)
• New Hampshire Housing Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes Program
• Lead-Edu
• Viken Detection
• SciAps, Inc.

Conference Program and Schedule

Thursday, May 2, 2024

General Sessions from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a lunch break from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The general sessions will focus on ways in which new and pending regional and national regulatory and programmatic issues can impact on state and local public health and housing departments, lead inspectors and risk assessors, lead abatement firms, advocacy and outreach organizations and lead laboratories.

Issue #1 will deal with Lowering of Blood Lead Levels by States within the Region and the impact on public health programs, education and outreach strategies, and health advocates.

Issue #2 will deal with EPA’s newly enacted Dust Lead Hazard Standards and Dust Lead Post-Abatement Clearance Levels and the rule’s consequences on public programs and on lead inspections, remediation and clearance requirements and costs.

Issue # 3 will deal with the Similarities and Differences among the New England States regulations and how they conduct lead and healthy housing programs.

Issue #4 will deal with the Lead and Healthy Housing Achievements and Challenges, including the effectiveness of federal grants and federal enforcement strategies in New England.
Representatives from the New England Region’s state health departments, federal agencies, lead hazard control practitioners and national advocacy organizations will provide information pertaining to these Issues and will be available for questions from the attendees.

Networking Reception and Exhibit Viewing from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Friday, May 3, 2024

Two Concurrent Educational Tracks from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. with a buffet lunch served from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Below is a partial listing of topics covered in the two Educational Tracks.

• Strategies for reaching at-risk populations, including refugee and migrant groups, with lead poisoning prevention and environmental health information.
• Safer Water at Schools: A look at New Hampshire’s new law and other states policies on lead in schools’ drinking water.
• Empowering families to prevent pervasive lead exposure when abatement or relocation are not immediate options.
• Effect on state and local lead poisoning prevention programs on EPA proposed guidance that lowered recommended screening levels and strengthened guidance for cleaning up lead-contaminated soil.
• Undertaking pro-active rental inspections and licensing programs.
• Strategies for making RRP work in your community.
• Need to counter Congressional actions to reduce HUD’s impact on providing grants essential to strengthening both lead hazard control and healthy housing initiatives at the local level.
• Identifying indoor environmental health and safety hazards and determining remediation strategies.
• Lessons learned from New Hampshire’s Residential Market Survey for accessing housing data and engaging landlords.
• Strategies for improving living conditions for migrant families.

Need CEUs?

The New England Regional Conference has been approved for 15 hours of CEUs by the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA). If you attend the conference and want CEUs from NEHA, upon completion, send a request for the Pre-Approval NEHA letter and the Continuing Education Certificate of Completion to weilcm2@verizon.net.

Interested in Exhibiting?

Exhibit space is limited. If you are interested in exhibiting, please send an email to Steve Weil at weilcm2@verizon.net. We will contact you with exhibiting information and schedule that will include set-up and tear-down times, exhibit viewing times and costs.

Registration Information

Number Attending: For 1 person from an organization.
$235 per person

Number Attending: For 2 or 3 persons from an organization.
$220 per person

Number Attending: 4 or more persons from an organization.
$205 per person