Cushing Dolbeare,
Champion of Affordable Housing (1927-2005)
On March 17, Cushing Dolbeare passed away
after a long battle with cancer. For more than 50 years, Cushing was an advocate
for affordable housing and social justice whose effectiveness and impact was
unmatched. She founded the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) in
1974 and worked to ensure that communities affected had a voice in national
policy through the organization, which she directed for many years.
Cushing believed strongly that advocacy must be based on
hard data, and her insightful analyses of housing policy helped quantify the
growing affordable housing crisis for American families. Her invention of the
"housing wage" to depict the gap between housing costs and wages of
low income people helped give this crisis meaning to policy makers and the general
public. Her championship of the National Housing Trust Fund helped build broad
support for this still-pending initiative that would build, rehab, and preserve
1.5 million affordable housing units over the next ten years.
Cushing's advocacy for affordable housing brought her quite
naturally to the fight to protect children from lead poisoning and other health
hazards in their homes. Cushing was a founding director of the Alliance and
also served on the National Center for Healthy Housing’s board for many
years. She helped defuse tensions to bring advocates for affordable housing
and advocates for children’s health together to work in common cause for
decent, safe, and affordable housing.
In 2002, the National Low Income Housing Coalition celebrated
Cushing's 50 years of advocacy for affordable housing by creating the Cushing
N. Dolbeare Endowment Fund, which will provide a stable source of support for
the Coalition's work through changing currents in politics and philanthropy.
Already, more than $1.9 million has been committed to this Endowment, which
brings it within striking distance of its $2.5 million goal. The Coalition had
hoped to celebrate achievement of that goal with Cushing at its annual meeting
on May 2. We will now have to celebrate without her.
You can contribute to the Cushing N. Dolbeare Endowment
Fund at https://www.nlihc.org/contribute.htm.
A challenge grant by Freddie Mac will match your contributions dollar for dollar.
EPA Abandons
Lead-Safe Remodeling and Renovation Regulation
According to internal agency documents, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) quietly abandoned regulations governing lead safety
in remodeling and renovation. The decision was made in 2004 but was not openly
announced. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
(PEER) released the internal documents to the public on March 14.
Title X directed EPA to issue regulations to prevent lead
hazards during renovation and remodeling work by October 28, 1996. Though it
missed the statutory deadline, EPA continued work on the LSWP regulations at
least through 2003. However, in 2004, the Agency abandoned plans to issue this
regulation in favor of a voluntary approach of questionable impact.
This voluntary program, initially proposed at $1 million
annually, would have begun with a three-year pilot that would reach 200-300
renovators and remodelers within an industry composed of more than 250,000 businesses.
Since the program would have focused on rental property owners with large holdings,
it would not have reached most persons performing work that disturbs lead-based
paint in poorly maintained rental housing properties, including millions of
unsubsidized affordable housing units. Moreover, the pilot program was never
carried out because of budget cuts.
A group of more than 120 organizations and individuals
(see www.afhh.org/aa/aa_alert_LSWP_sign_on_EPA.htm)
sent a sign-on letter to EPA Acting Administrator Stephen Johnson, expressing
disappointment in the Agency’s abandonment of the rule and weak leadership
in ensuring lead safety in remodeling and renovation, and calling on EPA to
propose a results-oriented rule addressing lead-safety in remodeling and renovation
by October 1, 2005. Elements of the rule requested in the letter would include
requiring renovation and remodeling contractors who have not completed an approved
lead safe work practices training course by a date certain to become certified
abatement supervisors; specifying risk factors that would require post-work
dust testing; and building capacity for effective training in clearance and
LSWP.
HUD Announces
Availability of Lead and Healthy Homes Grants
On March 21, HUD released its FY2005 SuperNOFA that includes
application instructions for the Department’s Lead-Based Paint Hazard
Control and Healthy Homes grants programs. Application deadlines vary for the
different programs, falling between June 7 and June 15, 2005. Copies of the
notices, application kits, and forms are available on HUD’s website at
www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm.
Approximately $93.6 million will be awarded for Lead-Based
Paint Hazard Control grants, available to state and local government agencies
for controlling lead hazards in privately owned, low-income housing. Approximately
$49.4 million will be awarded through the Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration
Grant program to local government agencies in areas with the “highest
lead paint abatement needs.” Approximately $8 million will be awarded
through the Operation Lead Elimination Action Program (Operation LEAP) to leverage
private sector resources to eliminate childhood lead poisoning. Approximately
$5 million will be awarded under the Healthy Homes Demonstration Program to
support projects that address multiple childhood diseases and injuries related
to housing in a coordinated fashion using effective hazard assessment and intervention
methods, and public education and outreach efforts. Approximately $5 million
will be awarded for Healthy Homes and Lead Technical Studies projects ($2 million
for healthy homes and $3 million for lead). Approximately $2 million is available
for the Lead Outreach Grant Program to increase enrollment of low-income units
for lead hazard control programs; develop, translate, and distribute educational
materials for high-risk communities and key audiences; create local partnerships;
and identify lead hazards and report them to property owners or managers and
government officials.
Lead poisoning prevention advocacy organizations and other
community-based organizations are strongly encouraged to apply for Healthy Homes
Demonstration, Operation LEAP, Lead Outreach, and Healthy Homes and Lead Technical
Studies funds, and to partner with government agencies to submit applications
for Lead Hazard Control and Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration grants. Examples
of the activities that community-based organizations can be funded to perform
include training (including training residents to screen houses through visual
assessment and sampling), outreach, community education, marketing, inspection
(including dust lead testing), and the conduct of lead hazard control activities.
On March 2, Senate Appropriations Chair Thad Cochran (R-MS)
announced a change to the subcommittee structure to roughly align with an earlier
reorganization adopted by the House. This reoganization eliminates the VA-HUD-Independent
Agencies subcommittee and divides its accounts among the remaining twelve subcommittees.
EPA’s budget is now under the Interior and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s
jurisdiction, and HUD’s budget is now in the hands of a new Transportation-Treasury-Judiciary-Housing
and Urban Development Subcommittee. Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) will chair this
new subcommittee, with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) serving as Ranking Member.
Other members include familiar champions of lead poisoning prevention and healthy
homes funding, including Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Mike DeWine (R-OH).
The restructuring comes on the heels of a similar measure
in the House of Representatives, which consolidated that chamber’s 13
subcommittees to ten. The new Senate subcommittee structure, though still not
exactly parallel to that of the House, matches up better, potentially lessening
difficulties in finalizing the FY06 appropriations bills.
New Jersey
Program Targets Lead Hazards before a Child is Born
The State of New Jersey announced March 10 that it will
fund a targeted lead-testing program in 18 municipalities, including Newark,
Trenton, and Atlantic City. The program, called Wipe Out Lead New Jersey,
will provide free lead dust test kits to pregnant women in order to identify
lead hazards in homes before a child is even born.
New Jersey Acting Governor Richard Codey said that the
lead test kits will help protect children from lead poisoning and indicated
that the state will spend $1 million this year to distribute the kits to 30,000
expectant mothers.
The kits will contain moist swabs, test tubes, full sampling
instructions, and postage-paid envelopes to make testing homes for lead as simple
as possible. BTS Laboratories, a Maryland-based affiliate of Rx Solutions International,
will conduct analysis of the test swabs and return results within three weeks.
The results will also be available to the New Jersey Department of Health and
Senior Services to assist the department in identifying lead hazard “hot
spots” within each municipality.
Maryland
Court Upholds Landlord Responsibility to Control Lead Hazards
The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled March 11 that landlords
in Baltimore have a duty to proactively comply with the city’s Housing
Code, which expressly prohibits flaking, loose, or peeling paint. The court
applied its November 2003 holding in Brooks v. Lewin Realty III to
all deteriorated lead paint-related lawsuits pending appeal while Brooks
was being decided. The court also reaffirmed that the precedent set in Brooks
will govern all future deteriorated lead-based paint cases arising in Baltimore.
The Court of Appeals is Maryland’s “court of last resort,”
equivalent to other states’ Supreme Courts.
In the March case, Polakoff v. Turner, the court
upheld a $350,000 jury award to Jasmine Turner, a Baltimore child poisoning
by deteriorated lead-based paint found in her apartment. Using its holding in
Brooks, the court emphasized that Jasmine’s landlord, Lawrence
Polakoff, had an affirmative duty to comply with all portions of Baltimore’s
housing code, including the section of the code which bans deteriorated paint
in homes. The court pointed out that in the nine years that Jasmine’s
family lived in Polakoff’s rental housing, he never inspected the apartment
to ensure that the property was up to code. This negligence allowed old peeling
paint to deteriorate further during the family’s tenancy, which in turn
poisoned Jasmine.
Minnesota Legislators
Propose Lower Blood Lead Response Level
State Sen. Linda Higgins and State Rep. Keith Ellison,
both DFL-Minneapolis, introduced bills today that would lower the mandated response
level in Minnesota for an elevated blood lead level from 20ug/dl to 10ug/dl,
with a response also required if there is a persistent level of 5-9ug/dl over
a period of 90 days. The bill also decreases the time agencies must respond
to blood lead levels in excess of 22.5ug/dl (5 days) and 35ug/dl (48 hours).
The bill is expected to meet stiff opposition, particularly
from state and local agencies, who believe they do not have the necessary resources
to respond to a lower threshold response level. Agencies have also argued in
the past that a lower mandated response level will make them less competitive
for federal HUD dollars, believing they can spread current federal funds to
additional units if they are not required to follow more rigid lead hazard control
standards for lowered environmental response levels.
Reps. Slaughter and
Clay Introduce Home Lead Safety Tax Credit Act
Representatives Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and William Lacy
Clay (D-MO) introduced the Home Lead Safety Tax Credit Act of 2005 in February.
The bill, HR 453, amends the federal tax code to provide owners of residential
properties built before 1978 a tax credit for lead-based paint abatement costs
performed by a certified lead abatement contractor.
The bill limits the amount of the tax credit to fifty percent
of the total cost of abatement, and the credit cannot exceed $1,500 per dwelling
unit each year. The bill was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.
EPA
Proposes Stricter Standards on Lead in Drinking Water
On March 7, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
announced a proposal for more stringent testing and reporting standards for
lead in drinking water, affecting the practices of water utilities across the
United States. The standards would go into effect in early 2006.
Following the controversy that erupted when the Washington
Post published a series of articles in early2004 regarding high levels
of lead found in the drinking water of thousands of Washington, DC, homes, reports
surfaced that three other water utilities in the United States—St. Paul,
MN; Port St. Lucie, FL; and Ridgewood, NJ—were having similar problems
with unsafe lead levels in drinking water.
In response, the EPA plans to require that utilities inform
state water quality officials at least two months before altering their water
treatment methods. Changing water treatment methods can sometimes corrode pipes,
especially older lead service lines, causing the heavy metal to leach into drinking
water. Utilities would also be required to better control corrosion in all pipes.
The stronger standards would also mandate that utilities notify residents of
any lead testing within a home or apartment complex. Schools and child care
facilities would be included in the reporting and monitoring requirements as
well.
Study
Identifies Cockroaches as Significant Asthma Trigger in Inner-City Children
Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center, in conjunction with the Inner City Asthma Study, reported in March that
cockroaches exacerbate childhood asthma symptoms much more than pet dander or
dust mites, two culprits traditionally emphasized by doctors when assisting
families with their child’s asthma. The study was published in the March
2005 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
The study found that inner-city children who were sensitized
and exposed to cockroach antigen, a compound that triggers allergic reactions
and asthma symptoms, experienced more days with pronounced asthma symptoms,
missed more school days, and interrupted the sleep of their parents more often
than asthmatic children who were not exposed to cockroaches in their homes.
Kenneth Olden, former Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS), said that the study’s data suggest that cockroach antigen
is the primary trigger of asthma in inner-city children.
The highest levels of cockroach antigen, and the largest
cockroach populations, were found in multifamily housing units, with high-rise
apartment buildings in Chicago, New York City, and Dallas having the worst cockroach
problems. An abstract of the study is available here.
Improper maintenance and ineffective pest management practices
can lead to explosive growth in cockroach populations and increase the likelihood
that children will be exposed to the antigen from the roaches’ saliva,
fecal material, and dead bodies. Integrated pest management (IPM) strategies
are effective in reducing cockroach populations by plugging entryways, controlling
excessive moisture, and preventing access to food sources while utilizing low-toxicity
treatments that reduce dangerous pesticide exposures that can also trigger asthma.
For more information about the integrated pest management of cockroaches, see
www.pesticide.org/cockroaches1.pdf
and www.pesticide.org/cockroaches2.pdf.
Researchers
Continue to Find Toxic Substances in Household Dust
Researchers and advocates continue to find toxic substances
in household dust across the United States, according to a new report released
on March 23. Sick of Dust: Chemicals in Common Products—A Needless
Health Risk in Our Homes shows that chemicals from everyday consumer products
like vinyl flooring, cookware, cleaning products, and foam cushions are making
their way into the dust we inhale and ingest every day.
Researchers sampled dust from 70 homes, ten each in California,
Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Washington State. The
ten samples from each state were pooled into one large state sample, and in
each of the seven pooled samples, laboratory analysis detected at least five
of the six broad classes of chemicals examined for the study. Researchers tested
the dust for phthalates, pesticides, alkylphenols, organotins, perfluorinated
surfactants, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers.
Though ubiquitous in the home environment, the chemicals
in the study are far from harmless. Dr. David O. Carpenter, public health researcher
at SUNY-Albany, said, “For all these chemicals, animal studies show clear
harmful effects.” While the evidence of harm to humans is just “strongly
suggestive” at this time, Carpenter maintains that “where there’s
so much smoke, there’s certainly a fire.” The chemicals are suspected
of causing or exacerbating a wide range of health problems, including hormone
disruption, physical feminization in boys, early puberty in girls, allergies,
cancer, and neurological disorders. Some of the chemicals, including certain
phthalates and pesticides, can also be asthma triggers.
Many product manufacturers insist that the toxic chemicals
escaping from their products are needed to enhance performance or to make their
products fire-resistant. However, advocates pointed out that several industry
giants have already moved to phase some of the most toxic chemicals out of their
consumer product lines. These companies include Dell, Intel, and IKEA.
California
Agency Links Environmental Tobacco Smoke to Breast Cancer
In early March, scientists at the California Air Resources
Board (ARB) added breast cancer to the list of diseases linked to environmental
tobacco smoke (ETS).
According to an ARB report about the toxicity of ETS, women
exposed to ETS risk up to a 90 percent greater chance of developing breast cancer,
which kills 40,000 American women every year. The report found that the risk
is especially great in younger women. The ARB reached its conclusion based on
recent studies that more closely examined the long-term impacts of ETS exposure.
ARB scientists also gave more weight to toxicology evidence than have previous
studies by the U.S. Surgeon General and other researchers.
Containing over 200 toxic substances and 69 carcinogens,
environmental tobacco smoke has also been linked to lung cancer, asthma attacks,
peripheral artery disease, heart attacks, emphysema and other respiratory diseases,
and stroke. Overall, the ARB estimates that environmental tobacco smoke exposure
kills 73,400 Americans each year.
More
Evidence Links Mold and Excessive Moisture to Asthma
A new longitudinal study shows further evidence that excessive
moisture and mold growth in the home are linked to the development of childhood
asthma. The study results were published in the March 2005 issue of Environmental
Health Perspectives.
Researchers followed the case histories of 1,916 children
without asthma over six years, from age one to age seven, and looked at the
independent and combined effect of two factors on the development of asthma
in these children: parental history of allergic diseases including asthma, and
indicators of mold and excessive moisture exposure. History of water damage,
presence of excessive moisture, presence of visible mold growth, and detectable
mold odor in the home were used as indicators of such exposures.
Within the timeframe of the study, 138 children, or 7.2
percent, developed asthma. While both parental history of allergic disease and
exposure to mold both were strongly linked to the development of asthma in these
children, they did not appear to increase or decrease the effect of each other.
The researchers concluded that the evidence discovered in this study shows that
exposure to mold and excessive moisture independently increases the risk of
the development of childhood asthma.
Scientists
Say Unvented Gas Heaters Worsen Asthma Symptoms
In February 2004, Australian scientists expressed concern
that unvented gas heaters and related combustion appliances pose a risk to asthmatic
children. The study they conducted focused on unvented heaters in schools, but
the researchers asserted that it is reasonable to conclude that unvented combustion
appliances pose a risk to children and all asthmatics in the home environment
as well.
In the home, unvented fireplaces, gas logs, and gas heaters
release carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, and nitrous acids in their combustion
processes. Outdoors, nitrous oxides form smog, a potent asthma trigger in sensitive
populations. Indoors, the Australian study linked nitrous oxides, in combination
with breathing in higher concentrations of carbon dioxide and nitrous acids,
with increased incidence of tight chest, difficulty breathing, and full-blown
asthma attacks requiring the use of fast-acting “rescue” inhalers.
The study found that when unvented combustion heating appliances
were replaced with vented appliances or electric heat, the incidence of all
asthma-related symptoms and missed school days declined sharply.
Healthy Homes
Advocate Appointed to CDC Lead Advisory Committee
On March 11, highly respected healthy homes advocate Linda
Kite of Los Angeles, CA, was appointed to CDC’s Advisory Committee on
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention. Linda is the Coordinator of the Healthy
Homes Collaborative in Los Angeles and has been a leader in lead poisoning prevention
advocacy and organizing for nearly 2 decades. She will complete the final year
of the 4-year term of Tracey Lynn, a veterinarian appointed to the committee
in 2002 who recently resigned after accepting an appointment to a federal job.
Linda’s term runs until May 31, 2006.
HUD Temporarily
Disables Leadlisting.org Resource
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
has temporarily disabled its www.leadlisting.org web resource.
While information about lead safety professionals is often
available through state government websites, leadlisting.org was the only site
that allows the general public to locate lead safety professionals in a “one-stop
shop” atmosphere. It provided a centralized source of information on lead
paint inspectors, risk assessors, abatement contractors, accredited lead laboratories,
lead safety training providers, renovation contractors trained in lead-safe
work practices, lead sampling technicians, and training course schedules. The
website was very popular, both with the public and with the lead hazard identification
and control industry.
HUD plans to restore this website. Until the site is operational,
the public is urged to locate information on lead professionals through state
government websites.
ALA Releases
New Lung Disease Data Report
The American Lung Association released a new report in
March that examines lung disease data in culturally diverse communities across
the country. “Lung Disease Data in Culturally Diverse Communities: 2005”
provides vital health information that can be used in the fight against lung
disease linked to environmental factors. The report includes data on African
Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Hawaiians
and Pacific Islanders, and LGBT Americans. It presents useful statistics, important
background materials, and essential information about lung health issues like
asthma, environmental tobacco smoke, and clean air as they relate to culturally
diverse communities. Enter your contact information at http://lungusa.kintera.org/lddcdc
to download the full report.
State
and Local Childhood Lead Poisoning Elimination Plans Available Online
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is now making
many state and local childhood lead poisoning elimination plans available online.
The plans were required from 36 states and the District of Columbia, and 5 large
cities as a condition of receiving CDC lead poisoning prevention funding. They
can be found at www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/Strategic%20Elim%20Plans/strategicplans.htm.
EPA Offers
Resources for Asthma Awareness Month in May
May is Asthma Awareness Month,
and World Asthma Day is May 3, 2005. In support of Asthma Awareness Month, the
EPA has developed an event planning kit, an Asthma Awareness Month website,
and event listing forms. The event planning kit is a free resource for community
organizers, health care providers, school nurses, teachers, and everyone who
is committed to raising awareness of asthma triggers and their management. The
kit includes ideas and tips on organizing events in local schools, hospitals,
clinics, libraries, and state capitols, and provides sample proclamations, letters
to the editor, and other resources to make it easy for community-based organizations
and others to plan outreach events. EPA's website also includes a map of Asthma
Awareness Month activities where organizations and individuals can see what
is planned in their state. Visit www.epa.gov/asthma/awm.html
for more information.
Funding Opportunities
The National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS) and its parent agency, the National Institutes of Health, are
calling for proposals for Community-Based Participatory Research Grants. These
projects should further the goal of reducing the burden of environmentally associated
diseases and health conditions by 1) providing the scientific basis for understanding
the impact of the environment on human health; 2) translating this information
into prevention and intervention strategies; 3) evaluating the efficacy of prevention
and intervention strategies; and 4) communicating the results to the public
and improving public health. All projects must be conducted in communities and
must allow community members, affected persons, and other key stakeholders the
opportunity to be full participants in each phase of the project, including
grant proposal development. FY 2005 grant proposals are due May 17, 2005. More
details are available at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-05-026.html#PartI.
Upcoming Conferences
The Center for Civic Partnerships will host the Healthy
Cities and Smart Growth: Planning for Healthier Communities conference on April
21 and 22 in Berkeley, CA. The conference will explore themes such as the built
environment and health, community growth and change, community livability and
social equity, and resource development. For more
information, see www.civicpartnerships.org/default.asp?id=315
or call 916-646-8680.
Indianapolis will host the 2005 Affordable Comfort Conference
from May 16-21. Conference participants will have available 57 short courses
and 96 sessions categorized into 18 tracks, covering issues such as home performance,
heating and cooling, and weatherization. For more information about the conference,
see www.affordablecomfort.org.
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