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EAST CHICAGO — As many as 1,200 residents — about two-thirds of them children — have been told it would be safer if they temporarily relocated from the city’s West Calumet Housing Complex because of health risks posed by lead in the soil around their homes, city officials said.

In a letter residents began receiving this week, Mayor Anthony Copeland said the city and East Chicago Housing Authority “recently were informed” by the Environmental Protection Agency that the ground within the public housing complex was “highly contaminated with lead and arsenic.”

As a result, the mayor ordered the East Chicago Health Department to offer lead testing to residents and their children. A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency webpage says West Calumet residents should call the East Chicago Health Department to have children tested.

“Now that we know the levels of lead in the ground in the West Calumet Housing Complex, we feel it is in your best interest to temporarily relocate your household to safer conditions,” the mayor's letter said.

“ECHA is asking HUD to provide vouchers for safe, sanitary housing as soon as possible. Even though this may be a great inconvenience to you, it’s necessary to protect you and your children from possible harm.”