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Lead in Drinking Water

Lead exposure is a public health problem affecting people across our nation. Exposure to unsafe levels of lead can cause serious health effects, especially among children.

Federal Nutrition Programs

Federal nutrition programs can be leveraged in the event of a lead crisis by promoting balanced diets featuring key nutrients.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans provide information on food sources of select nutrients.

The WIC program provides resources to help protect participants from lead, including:

FNS policy memos have established ways to ensure the availability of safe water through Child Nutrition Programs. This includes:

SNAP-Ed gives caregivers information about how to use nutrition to decrease lead absorption. Learn more here.

Federal Resources

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remain experts on the topic and important sources of up-to-date information.

The EPA has information to learn about lead, including:

The CDC has a wealth of information on the topic, such as:

Their site also includes important news alerts related to lead and new publications of importance to the topic.

Page updated: August 19, 2024