RUMFORD — The River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition will continue its efforts to prevent childhood lead poisoning in Oxford County, due to a contract from Maine’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Fund.

The contract provides resources for RVHCC to go out into the community to protect the children most at risk for lead poisoning. RVHCC’s prevention activities are focused on landlords who own old buildings as well as the parents of young children who live in those older rental units.

“We’ve made a lot of progress since we won our first lead poisoning prevention contract in 2009,” said Patricia Duguay, executive director of RVHCC.

“In the beginning, we were building our program and assessing the community’s needs. Now, we are going into units with landlords, testing for lead dust and teaching them how to deal with lead paint – before a child is poisoned. This is revolutionary as far as lead poisoning prevention in Oxford County goes. We haven’t been able to do this until now,” she said.

Anyone interested in RVHCC’s lead poisoning prevention services, including free lead dust testing for rental units, may call 364-7408 or e-mail [email protected] for more information.