Judith Love’s oldest daughter suffered from lead poisoning. With help from the Hartford Regional Lead Treatment Center, the Love family now thrives in a lead-free apartment.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was so confident about the decline in childhood lead poisoning that it set a goal of eliminating it by 2010, but it remains a stubborn nemesis.  Officials now concede that eradication is still years away.

That’s why, 16 years after it was established with a grant from the Hartford Foundation, and after treating 900 children, the work of the Hartford Regional Lead Treatment Center is far from done, said Dr. Lisa Menillo, medical director.

Statistics tell the story.  In 1994, the year the regional agency was formed, 890,000 children under 6 in the U.S. tested positive for elevated lead levels. The latest figure is 120,000.  In the 1990s, new cases in Greater Hartford averaged more than 100 a year, but have decreased overall since then. Last year, there were 35.

The main problem: Old, badly maintained housing with lead-based paint. Lead paint was banned in 1978, but almost 80 percent of housing in Hartford County predates the ban.

While lead poisoning is a completely preventable disease, the damage it causes is irreversible. Lead harms children’s nervous systems and is associated with reduced IQ, behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Children poisoned by lead are seven times more likely to drop out of school, six times more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system.

The Hartford Regional Lead Treatment Center carries on an education, detection and treatment program in collaboration with private and government programs. It operates two clinics, at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

“The regional center is successful because of the Hartford Foundation,” said Dr. Menillo. “Many times we have gone back to the Foundation to propose ways to expand our work and we have always found support.”

Expansions have included integrating lead poisoning services and asthma and injury prevention, increased staffing for outreach and public education and additional clinical services. Grants from the Hartford Foundation total approximately $1 million.

“The Hartford Regional Lead Treatment Center and various outgrowths is one of the true success stories in the city and the Hartford Foundation has been instrumental in its success,” said Dr. Menillo.