Jan 20, 2025 Story by: Editor
The Center for Black Health & Equity has publicly criticized Cleveland’s city leadership for their slow response to addressing significant health disparities faced by the Black community. On Monday, the organization held a press conference at Cleveland City Hall, urging immediate reforms.
“Despite the city of Cleveland’s official declaration of racism as a public health crisis, meaningful progress has been slow and our voices have been ignored,” stated Ashley Hebert, senior policy manager for The Center for Black Health & Equity. She was joined by representatives from the Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, and Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing.
The speakers highlighted how gun violence, heart disease, and cancer are disproportionately impacting Cleveland’s Black residents. They criticized the sluggish progress in public health policies addressing key issues such as access to healthy food, lead poisoning testing for children, and restrictions on flavored tobacco and menthol cigarettes targeting youth.
“It’s about ensuring that every Cleveland resident, regardless of their zip code, has a fair shot at living a long and healthy life,” said Bishop Chui of the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus. “These disparities demand bold, immediate action, yet rather than fostering collaboration, critical public health legislation has been stalled. This obstruction does not just delay progress on legislation; it also perpetuates the inequities and suffering that so many of our residents endure daily.”
The group called on city leaders to adopt data-driven strategies to tackle inequities, improve health outcomes, and promote health equity citywide.
Responding to the concerns raised, Cleveland’s Director of Public Health, Dr. David Margolius, acknowledged the severity of the issue.
“There’s a huge disparity in life expectancy between Black residents and white residents in the city of Cleveland,” Margolius admitted. “In neighborhoods that are predominantly Black in Cleveland, the life expectancy is like in the mid-60s compared to the high-80s in the suburbs. So we absolutely need to act together to implement policy that reduces our smoking rate, reduces our lead poisoning rate, obesity, hypertension — all the issues that are disproportionately affecting Black residents in Cleveland.”
Margolius also outlined initiatives from the Cleveland Department of Public Health, including smoking cessation programs and efforts to establish a smoking cessation network in the city. He expressed optimism about working with Cleveland City Council on policies to regulate tobacco sales.
“We’re partnering with city council to look at some different legislation that would regulate how many tobacco retailers there are in the city,” he explained. “City council has expressed interest to work with us on inspecting and regulating the same way we do with restaurants. So how do we go in there, make sure that a cashier isn’t selling cigarettes to a 19-year-old because the law is 21 and up? How do we make sure that they’re not marketing the flavored products directly to kids outside of schools? That’s something that the health department doesn’t do now, but with legislation we’ll be able to do that.”
Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin also weighed in on the matter.
“I think that we’ve made measurable progress,” Griffin stated. “I think that we’ve done a lot of good things policy-wise. I actually happen to agree with them about lead testing.”
However, regarding tobacco restrictions, Griffin expressed skepticism, noting that accessibility issues extend beyond city borders.
“You want to do this in the city of Cleveland, but then you can go right across the street where I live at in Shaker and Cleveland Heights and buy whatever menthol tobacco you want,” he said. “I will also tell you that we have times when we’ve seen people that might try to unleash an illegal market for these goods.”
Griffin emphasized the importance of focusing on education alongside policy changes.
“We’ve got to do a better job of educating,” he said. “If we don’t educate, if we don’t lift as we climb and build these policies, then they’re going to fall on deaf ears.” Source: WKYC
