Alabama parents are advised to have their homes and children tested for lead as the state opbserves National Lead Poisoning Prevetion Week, October 23-29.

Nearly a quarter of a million children living in the United States have blood lead levels high enough to cause significant damage to their health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, based on data from a 2003–2004 national survey. Major sources of lead exposure among U.S. children are lead-based paint and lead-contaminated dust found in deteriorating buildings.

Despite the continued presence of lead in the environment, lead poisoning is entirely preventable. “If high blood lead levels are not detected early, children with such high levels of lead in their bodies can suffer from damage to the brain and nervous system,” Dr. Tom Miller, deputy director for medical affairs, Alabama Department of Public Health, said.

Troy University’s College of Health and Human Services is partnering with the Houston County Department of Human Resources in a suitcase drive that aims to make moving easier for local foster children.

TROY and the DHR are asking the public to donate new or used pieces of luggage, duffel bags or backpacks, which will be given to foster children to help them when moving into a new home.

Donations of travel-size toiletry items such as shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes are also being accepted.

Items can be dropped off at the Social Work Department at TROY’s Dothan Campus, located in the Library/Technology Building Room 242, or at Ridgecrest Baptist Church and First Assembly of God in Dothan.

The drive is ongoing with a goal of collecting 500 suitcases.

For more information, contact Jenny Nelson at (334) 983-6556, ext. 1435.

The Southern Baptist Convention meets this week in Phoenix to elect new leaders and one could make his mark in the history of the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

Fred Luter is expected to be nominated for first vice president. If elected, he would be the first African-American in the No. 2 position of the mostly white denomination.

Luter is head pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. He has broken other barriers: In 1992, he was the first African-American elected to the executive board of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. In 2001, he was the first African-American to preach the convention sermon at the SBC annual meeting.

The conference runs Tuesday and Wednesday. It comes at a time when membership is declining and the denomination is trying to diversify.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)