After a long wait, the federal FY2004 Omnibus Appropriations
bill was passed and signed into law late last month. The bill wrapped up a drawn-out
fiscal process and included appropriations for HUD, CDC, and EPA, along with
many other agencies.
Funding levels for HUD’s Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard
Control programs were not increased for FY04, with the overall total for lead
hazard reduction funded at $174 million. Operation LEAP was funded at $9 million,
the High Lead Areas Removal Initiative remained at about $50 million, and the
Healthy Homes program retained its $10 million funding level. The bill also
included level funding for EPA and CDC lead poisoning prevention programs, restoring
the proposed cut in EPA grants for state lead poisoning prevention programs.
In the final analysis, Congress provided full funding for the Housing Choice
Voucher rental assistance program for low-income families.
On Feb. 1, the Bush Administration submitted its FY2005
budget request to Congress, the first step in the next annual budget process.
The President’s budget proposes a 20% cut in lead hazard reduction from
$174 million to $139 million. The proposed total includes $10 million for Healthy
Homes and $9 million for Operation LEAP but zeros out the $50 million lead hazard
control grants targeted to cities with the worst lead poisoning problems. The
Administration’s decision to cap domestic program funding increases at
0.5% (exclusive of homeland security) has forced reductions in many programs.
Overall funding for affordable housing and community development is essentially
flat, but the President’s request falls short of funding all housing vouchers
that are currently authorized. Moreover, the Administration has once again proposed
changing housing vouchers into a block grant program and eliminating HOPE VI,
two policy changes that Congress rejected last year.
Other agencies’ lead and healthy homes programs also
saw generally flat funding in the FY05 proposal, though there were increases
and some cuts compared with the president’s FY04 request. EPA’s
lead grant program funding is level with the previous year’s, but its
Lead Risk Reduction Program loses $3.75 million in the proposal; at the same
time, some of EPA’s indoor air quality programs received slightly increased
amounts. CDC saw a level budget request for its environmental health programs,
which include childhood lead poisoning prevention and asthma initiatives.
High Lead Levels
Discovered in DC Water
A major controversy is raging in Washington, DC about elevated
lead levels in drinking water. As the Washington Post recently reported, more
than 4,000 of 6,000 homes tested exceeded the EPA standard of 15 parts per billion
of lead in drinking water, and many homes had extremely high levels (300 ppb
and above). The municipal water company was apparently very lax in reporting
the results to residents and fired a "whistleblower" who informed
the U.S. EPA of the problem. Further details on this developing story can be
found at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14068-2004Feb4.html.
You can follow the links in the box on the right-hand side of the page for more
background on the controversy.
Should there be concern about lead in drinking water in
your community, various options are available for testing drinking water for
lead: some utilities offer free tests for residents; most environmental laboratories
perform such tests; and home test kits are available. The low-cost home test
kit that the Alliance’s Community Environmental Health Resource Center
uses provides an immediate screen for pesticides and bacteria as well as lead.
For more information visit www.cehrc.org/tools/lead/leadwater/index.cfm.
New Jersey Passes
Lead Hazard Control Bill
On Jan. 12, the New Jersey Legislature passed the Lead
Hazard Control Assistance Act, which was signed into law by Governor Jim McGreevey
Jan. 20. Various versions of this bill had been introduced regularly since 1994,
but never previously made it to floor votes in both houses.
Several factors made all the difference for the bill this
time around. New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA), a coalition of 120 state and
local organizations, worked with the New Jersey Tenants Organization, the Patterson
Task Force, and the New Jersey Environmental Federation in negotiations with
State Assembly Democrats, asking the Assembly to pass a bill identical to the
Senate’s version. NJCA also asked individuals to write to the Assembly’s
leadership, requesting that the Assembly pass the bill as written. These efforts
helped avoid a messy back-and-forth exchange between the Assembly and Senate;
in New Jersey, a bill must pass both houses in identical format before being
sent to the governor.
The bill creates a $10 million annual fund to evaluate
lead-based paint hazards in low-income housing and offers low-interest loans
and grants for abatement projects. The bill creates a separate fund to help
relocate lead-poisoned children and establishes a registry of lead-safe housing.
The bill also mandates lead inspections for rental properties constructed before
1978 with three or more housing units, unless they are certified as being free
of lead-based paint. Inspections will occur in five-year cycles, and the $20
fee per unit inspected will go into the relocation fund.
In 2002, more than 5,000 children tested in New Jersey
had elevated blood lead levels, and the effects of lead poisoning cost the state
millions of dollars each year in health care and special education expenses.
On Feb. 4, the New York City Council reaffirmed its strong
support for a tough new lead-hazard control law, overriding Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s
veto by a resounding vote of 44-5-1. The measure will go into effect in six
months.
The law, drafted by advocates and introduced several years
ago, replaces the city's 1980s-era law that was reinstated briefly after a 1999
law was invalidated last July by the state’s highest court. The new statute
requires landlords to safely remove peeling lead paint and lead dust in pre-1960
apartments where children under age 7 reside. Cited violations must be fixed
within 45 days, and the city must inspect landlords’ repairs within 14
days. The law also mandates that landlords identify all children under age 7
living in rental properties constructed before 1960 and provides strict lead-safe
work practice standards for paint repair.
Arguing that the new law will be costly and difficult to
implement, Bloomberg’s administration immediately denounced the council’s
action, saying the measure will not protect children and will drive away those
developers willing to construct low-income housing. Supporters of the new law
rebuffed these claims, stating it is well within the city’s ability to
provide affordable, lead-safe housing for all of New York City’s families.
For more information on the work of local advocates to
pass the law and to help the Council override Mayor Bloomberg’s veto,
contact Matthew Chachère, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation,
chachere@igc.org.
Mold Exposure Linked
to Childhood Asthma Risk
A recent study funded by the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences found that indoor mold exposure increased the incidence in infants
of two important precursors to childhood asthma: wheezing and persistent cough.
The study included 849 infants delivered in five hospitals, all of whom had
at least one sibling diagnosed with childhood asthma.
The study, conducted in Connecticut and southern Massachusetts,
studied a wide range of factors that can impact indoor air quality, including
allergens, tobacco smoke, wood smoke, and mold. It found that while common allergens
did not significantly impact the respiratory health of the infants in the study,
mold did trigger greater rates of wheezing and persistent coughing in babies.
The study also demonstrated that infants whose mothers have asthma are at a
greater risk of adverse health effects from exposure to mold than infants whose
mothers do not have asthma, suggesting that mold sensitivity may be genetic.
The study’s authors recommend further inquiries to examine the interaction
between possible genetic factors and mold exposure in infants.
The study, “Symptoms of Wheeze and Persistent Cough
in the First Year of Life: Associations with Indoor Allergens, Air Contamination,
and Maternal History of Asthma,” was published in the August 1, 2003 issue
of the American Journal of Epidemiology and was summarized in the January 2004
issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. The summary is available online
at http://ehis.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2004/112-1/niehsnews.html
(bottom of the page) or http://ehis.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2004/112-1/EHP112pa28PDF.PDF
(PDF version, p. 4).
Chicago and NJ Proceed
with Litigation against Lead Paint Manufacturers
More than twenty public entities in New Jersey, including
Newark and Union County, have filed an appeal to continue their litigation against
the manufacturers of lead-based paint. The plaintiffs are appealing the November
2002 dismissal of their case. The cities and counties filed several suits against
the lead industry in 2001 on grounds of fraud, public nuisance, conspiracy,
unjust enrichment, and indemnity; those cases were then consolidated in the
Mass Tort Section of state courts. The Alliance, the American Public Health
Association, New Jersey Citizen Action, the Association for the Children of
New Jersey, and the NJ Statewide Parent Advocacy Network filed an amici curiae
brief in support of the plaintiffs' appeal.
The City of Chicago has also just filed an appeal in its
case. On Sept. 5, 2002, the City of Chicago launched the largest case filed
to date against lead pigment manufacturers for damages stemming from lead-based
paint. Chicago has more lead-poisoned children than any city in the country
and almost any state. On Oct. 7, 2003, a judge dismissed the city’s lawsuit,
ruling that the city failed to connect any of the defendants to a nuisance in
any particular building. The Alliance, American Public Health Association, Day
Care Action Council of Illinois, Health & Disability Advocates, Illinois
Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Infant Welfare Society of Chicago,
Illinois Public Health Association, Metropolitan Tenants Organization, Lawyers
Committee for Better Housing, Uptown People’s Law Center, and Voices for
Illinois Children filed an amici curiae brief in support of the city's appeal.
Review Period Open
for EPA Indoor Air Quality Label Proposal
The public review period for the Environmental Protection
Agency’s (EPA) proposed Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) label is now open. EPA’s
Indoor Environments Division has released information and draft materials to
invite comments on the concept of developing an IAQ label in concert with the
Energy Star new homes program (www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=new_homes.hm_index).
The proposed plan would offer newly constructed homes that
meet specific indoor air quality criteria an IAQ label very much like the Energy
Star label already in existence. The draft specifications have been posted on
EPA’s website, and comments are being solicited from all interested organizations
and individuals. The comment period closes Friday, March 12, 2004.
The Western Regional Conference on Mold, Lead, and Healthy
Homes and Children’s Environmental Health will be held from March 31 to
April 2 in Berkeley, California. Subject matter will cover children’s
environmental health; health education; lead hazard control and healthy homes
practices, programs, and policies; and conducting mold prevention, assessment,
and remediation work. Registration by February 29 is $360, and partial scholarships
are available for qualifying individuals. For more information about the conference,
see www.leadconferences.com/04pdfs/2004WesternRegConf.pdf.
Further details can be obtained by visiting www.leadmoldconferences.com
or by calling 1-800-590-6522.
The 22nd National Pesticide Forum, entitled “Unite
for Change: New Approaches to Pesticides and Environmental Health,” will
take place from April 2-4 at the Clark Kerr Conference Center at the University
of California, Berkeley. Topics to be covered include home contamination, emerging
pesticide science, successful grassroots campaigns, corporate accountability,
pesticides in schools, stopping pesticide drift, social marketing, litigation
for change, and more. Details about the conference and the preliminary agenda
can be found at www.beyondpesticides.org/forum/brochure.pdf.
Questions can be directed to Beyond Pesticides at 202-543-5450.
The 4th National Asthma Conference: “Winning with
Asthma” will be held in Atlanta from April 14-16. The conference, sponsored
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and co-sponsored by the American
Lung Association, will cover a variety of topics related to asthma, including
coalition building, asthma surveillance, asthma interventions, asthma policy
and legislation, and health system change. Online registration is $75; on-site
registration will be $100. For details, visit the conference website at www.signup4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=200414E.
For questions about the conference or if you cannot register on the Internet,
please call Laura McMahon of Visions USA, Inc. at 404-320-1818 ext. 248.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Annual
Housing Policy Conference and Lobby Day is coming up on April 26 and 27. The
conference will be held in Washington, DC, and will consist of several sessions,
on low-income housing as an election issue, the National Housing Trust Fund,
and other current housing issues. There will also be a leadership awards reception
the evening of the 27th. For more information, visit www.nlihc.org
or call 202-662-1530.
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