Congress adjourned for the year without
taking final action on funding for HUD, EPA, CDC and a host of other agencies.
House and Senate conferees negotiated agreements on all outstanding funding
levels, which were bundled together in a single omnibus bill (H.R. 2673). This
final funding package includes essentially level funding for CDC, EPA, and HUD
lead poisoning prevention and healthy homes programs, including $50 million
for HUD lead hazard control grants targeted to areas with greatest needs, which
was first funded in FY2003. The House approved this overall funding package
before recessing in November, but the Senate postponed consideration of this
controversial bill until January 20. Details on this 1,000-plus page bill and
report are available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/R?cp108:FLD010:@1(hr401.
American Dream
Act Signed
Congress passed and President Bush signed into law on
Dec. 16 the American Dream Act. This bill authorizes (but does not fund) $200
million per year to be allocated to the states by formula for grants of up to
$10,000 to assist low-income first-time home-buyers. Funds can be used for downpayment
assistance and, thanks to an amendment championed by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI),
for home repairs of problems identified through a home inspection or an appraisal
or if expended within one year of purchase to comply with health and safety
housing codes, including remediation of lead paint or other home health hazards.
See http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c108:3:./temp/~c1084Ek212
for the actual text of this law.
New Standards
Issued on Indoor Air Ventilation
Engineers have identified ways to minimize factors that
lead to indoor air quality problems by designing heating, ventilation and air
conditioning systems to work together to effectively ventilate homes and minimize
indoor pollution. The nation's first recognized indoor air quality standard
for homes has been approved and published by the American Society of Heating,
Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in October. ASHRAE Standard
62.2, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential
Buildings, is intended for use by code-setting organizations (and, ultimately,
code agencies) as well as designers, contractors, engineers, and others who
plan, build and maintain dwellings. The standard defines minimum requirements
to achieve acceptable indoor air quality for existing and new residential buildings.
Some of the provisions already exist in some local and state codes; others are
newer, such as standards for continuous mechanical ventilation and outside exhaust
fans in the kitchen. ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2003, can be purchased for $37, www.ashrae.org
or call 800-527-4723.
The Alliance is an organizational member of the ASHRAE
committee that is working to publicize, interpret, and otherwise support implementation
of the standard. The Alliance is interested in comments about the standard -
including how it might be revised to cost-effectively further improve indoor
air quality, particularly in existing housing, and in relation to attached garages,
unvented combustion appliances, and the use of CO alarms. For further information
or to contribute feedback, contact Jane Malone, jmalone@afhh.org.
NYC Advocates
Near Victory on Lead Poisoning Prevention Law
Persistence has paid off for New York City lead poisoning
prevention advocates who campaigned relentlessly for a comprehensive new prevention
law to take the place of a 1980s-era law that was never fully enforced. On December
16, the New York City City Council approved Intro 101A by a margin of 44 to
5 (with one abstention and one absent). Three days later, Mayor Bloomberg vetoed
the bill, claiming that the law would expose the city and landlords to increased
litigation. However the measure passed the Council with ten more votes than
necessary to override the veto. The Council must act to override within 30 days
of the veto presentation to the Council on January 7, but no override vote has
been scheduled yet.
Intro 101A was drafted by advocates and introduced several
years ago, but never received a hearing or any action until New York's highest
court struck down the city's 1999 lead paint law last summer in response to
advocates' legal challenges. The court ruled the City Council had failed to
conduct appropriate environmental review of numerous aspects of the new law,
such as its weakening of lead dust hazard controls and the elimination of protections
for households with 6-year-olds. Intro 101A requires peeling paint and dust
to be safely removed in pre-1960 apartments with children under age 7 by trained
personnel. Cited violations must be fixed within 45 days, and the city must
inspect landlords' repairs within 14 days.
Advocates' efforts over the years not only included the
successful lawsuit regarding the weak, landlord-supported 1999 law, but also
the public release of a study on real estate industry contributions to council
members who opposed or blocked consideration of the Intro 101A, the release
of a report comparing the number of lead-poisoned children in each Council district
with whether that Council member was a co-sponsor of Intro 101A, and public
reports from community groups in Brooklyn and Washington Heights that documented
lead paint hazards in large numbers of homes they tested. For more information,
contact Matthew Chachère, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation,
chachere@igc.org.
Lead Poisoning
Prevention Bills Advance in Michigan
On Dec. 16, 4 bills in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's package
of lead poisoning prevention legislation were passed unanimously by the state
Senate's Families and Human Services Committee. The bills approved would: make
it a misdemeanor for landlords or agents to knowingly rent homes that are not
lead safe, create a registry of lead-safe homes, require labs to report elevated
blood-lead levels to the state electronically, and create an oversight commission
to monitor lead issues in the state.
The remaining bill, which would penalize HMOs that fail
to test at least 80% of children 6 and younger for lead poisoning, is still
being debated by the Senate committee. Some version of this bill is also expected
to pass, according to advocates. Legislators are considering ways to reward
HMOs that meet the 80% goal instead of punishing those that don't. Committee
Chairman Sen. Bill Hardiman said he hopes to send the five-bill package to the
full Senate in early 2004. For more information, contact Paul Haan, Get the
Lead Out!, gtlo@sbcglobal.net.
Environmental
Exposures Shown to Increase Asthma Risks
A University of Southern California study on childhood
asthma has concluded that chemical exposures during the first year of life can
substantially increase a child's risk of developing asthma. The study of nearly
700 children in 12 communities found that children exposed to household pesticides
in their first year of life were more than twice as likely to develop asthma.
Infants exposed to wood smoke, cockroaches, and farm animals also suffered higher
rates of asthma. While noting that an array of factors contribute to asthma,
the study indicates that both indoor and outdoor contaminants have especially
strong effects on infants and that respiratory health may be determined by exposure
during the child's first year. The study, "Early Life Environmental Risk
Factors for Asthma: Findings from the Children's Health Study," appeared
online in the December 2003 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. The
article is available at http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2003/6662/6662.html
EPA Finds Elevated Cancer Risks
in Arsenic-Treated Lumber
An Environmental Protection Agency study has concluded
that children who repeatedly come in contact with arsenic-treated wood face
increased risk of developing cancer. Preliminary findings issued by EPA in November
show that children repeatedly exposed to arsenic-treated wood face risk ranging
from one-in-100,000 to one-in-1 million. One-in-1 million is the EPA's historic
threshold of concern about the effects of toxic chemicals. The EPA study is
under review with the agency's Scientific Review Panel.
Arsenic - a known carcinogen - is one element of the preservative
chromated copper arsenate (CCA) found in pressure-treated wood that has been
widely used in playground equipment, picnic tables, decks, and fencing. At the
end of December, the production of CCA-treated lumber (except for some industrial
uses) ended under a voluntary agreement between EPA and the chemical and home
improvement industries. However, CCA-treated wood can still be sold until supplies
run out.
The new findings raise questions about how to protect children
from existing playgrounds and decks built with CCA-treated wood. EPA is also
conducting a study with the Consumer Products Safety Commission on ways to coat
existing wood structures to seal in the arsenic. The 18-month study is investigating
the effectiveness of sealants at preventing arsenic from leaching out of the
wood.
The CPSC announced the study on sealants in conjunction
with its decision not to ban the use of arsenic-treated lumber for children's
play equipment. The Commission said the ban was unnecessary because of the voluntary
agreement between industry and the EPA.
How is Your State
or City's Strategic Plan Progressing?
By July 2004, all jurisdictions that receive CDC lead poisoning
prevention grants - 37 states and five cities (New York, Chicago, Philadelphia,
Detroit, and LA County) - must complete a strategic plan to eliminate childhood
lead poisoning by 2010. Over the next two years, many other cities will also
be developing strategic plans as a requirement of award of HUD lead hazard control
grant funds.
Developing a state or local strategic plan presents a plan
presents a special opportunity to: check progress, set priorities, highlight
effective strategies, address weaknesses, increase resources, and build political
will. Some cities and states are taking these strategic plans seriously, with
draft plans scheduled for completion by the end of February. Other jurisdictions
have apparently barely begun work and not yet established a strategic planning
advisory committee.
CDC's guidance requires jurisdictions to undertake an inclusive
planning process by establishing an advisory workgroup or committee that includes
diverse stakeholders. In addition to health departments, Medicaid agencies,
managed care organizations, and housing programs, each advisory committee must
include: grassroots advocacy groups focused on at-risk populations, community-based
organizations focused on children's health, educators, real estate interests,
and programs such as WIC, immunizations, asthma control, and Head Start. Advocates
for lead poisoning prevention and communities at high risk are entitled to a
seat at the table.
In September 2003, CDC published an MMWR article entitled
Surveillance for Elevated Blood Lead Levels Among Children - United States,
1997-2001 summarizing available data on lead exposure of US children from two
different data sources - a national health survey and state surveillance systems.
The article reviews the national exposure estimates from the 1999-2000 NHANES
survey that were first published in February 2003, and augments it with lead
surveillance data collected by 44 states and DC from 1997 - 2001 and reported
annually to CDC. The state surveillance data is based on reports of blood lead
tests, usually from laboratories.
As has been reported already, the NHANES data suggest a
significant decline in mean blood lead levels for young children, with 2.2%
of U.S. children aged 1-5 (434,000 children) having blood lead levels greater
than or equal to 10 µg/dL, down from the prior 1991-1994 estimate of 4.4%
(890,000 children). The state surveillance data reflect a complementary decline
in elevated blood lead level (EBLL) rates consistent with the national estimates,
across the population as a whole and within racial and ethnic groups.
The number of young children tested for the national survey
was too small to make reliable estimates of EBLL rates for different population
subgroups, and hence does not illuminate disparities among children by income
or race. However, it does estimate higher geometric mean blood lead levels for
Black and Hispanic persons than for Whites. Some information on population subgroups
is presented in the surveillance data reported by states, although conclusions
should be drawn very cautiously due to the limitations of the data set (e.g.,
race or ethnicity data was missing for about half of the children with EBLL
reported by states). Extensive discussion of the limitations of the data is
included in the article. Nevertheless, the data seem to confirm observations
from other sources:
Among EBLL children with known race or ethnicity, 60%
were non-Hispanic blacks, 17% were non-Hispanic whites, 16% were Hispanic,
and 7% were others.
Five states (IL, OH, MI, NY, PA) and NYC accounted for
54% of the EBLL cases in 2001, with the largest numbers in northeastern and
Midwestern states.
Eight states that attempted to ascertain Medicaid status
for EBL children reported screening rates that ranged from 17.2% to 52.9%.
As of 2001, over a third (35.6%) of states still did
not require all blood lead levels to be reported, with two requiring reporting
only for blood lead levels > 25.
Community Environmental
Health Resource Center Welcomes New Partners
The Community Environmental Health Resource Center (CEHRC,
pronounced "search") is a project of the Alliance in collaboration
with grassroots advocacy groups. CEHRC works in partnership with community-based
organizations to use proven environmental sampling tools and visual assessment
protocols to document environmental health hazards that cause lead poisoning,
asthma, and other health problems, and use these data in advocacy campaigns
to trigger corrective action. CEHRC provides hazard-assessment tools, training,
technical and strategy assistance, and sub-grants to local groups as well as
mechanisms for local groups to share experiences, develop strategy together,
and learn from and support each other's efforts to reduce exposure to environmental
pollution. CEHRC is now working in ten communities to identify hazardous housing
conditions and use the data on hazards to spur corrective action. We are pleased
to welcome four new grantees to the project: Isles, Inc. of Trenton, NJ; Greensboro
Housing Coalition of Greensboro, NC; Pacoima Beautiful of Los Angeles, CA; and
St. Peter's Housing Committee, San Francisco, CA. CEHRC is also working for
a second year with Cleveland Tenants Organization/Environmental Health Watch
of Cleveland, OH; Connecticut Citizen Research Group of Hartford, CT; Environmental
Health Coalition of San Diego, CA; Louisiana ACORN of New Orleans, LA; Northern
Manhattan Improvement Corporation of NY, NY; and Westside Health Authority of
Chicago, IL.
Over the past year, CEHRC staff and partners have made
a significant national contribution to efforts to identify and address indoor
environmental health hazards. CEHRC partners recruited and trained community
residents in environmental sampling; sampled 2017 housing units for lead and
other hazards; educated their communities about environmental health hazards
as well as tenant and housing rights and resources; and worked towards enforcement
and policy change.
In partnership with local groups, CEHRC staff developed Background Materials,
Decision Guides, Assessment Instructions, Assessment Checklists, and Assessment
Report forms for lead in dust, lead in paint chips, lead in soil, lead swabs,
cockroaches, radon, carbon monoxide, mold and moisture, and drinking water;
developed a Visual Survey for housing related health hazards; designed a centralized
database; developed a Resident Agreement to protect the rights of residents;
and translated into Spanish most of the above documents and corresponding training
materials. More information about CEHRC, local projects, and how to investigate
hazardous housing conditions is available at www.cehrc.org.
Wanted: Insights
and Ideas for Healthy Homes Policy Solutions
Interest in healthy homes policy is percolating at the
national level, as well as in state legislatures and city councils. The Alliance
sees both the opportunity to build upon the change that is already beginning
and the necessity to avoid policy making in a vacuum that could lock in unworkable
approaches. We are actively reaching out to those with first-hand experience
in healthy homes and to members of communities directly affected by unhealthy
housing conditions to ensure that policy making is informed by that experience
and expertise. We want to hear from you about pending legislation and/or regulations
and are particularly interested in your ideas for policy solutions. Send us
your news, insights, and ideas by contacting Eileen Quinn at equinn@afhh.org.
Thanks.
Peggy Shepard
Honored for Pioneering Environmental Justice Work
Peggy Shepard, co-founder and executive director of West
Harlem Environmental Action, has been awarded the Heinz Award for the Environment
in recognition of her groundbreaking work on behalf of environmental health
and environmental justice. In announcing the award, Teresa Heinz noted, "Peggy
Shepard raised her voice - and later a veritable army - against a systemic form
of racism that wittingly or not sacrifices the environmental health of poor
urban areas."
In 1988, Shepard co-founded West Harlem Environmental
Action, a nonprofit organization working to improve environmental policy, public
health, and quality of life in communities of color. Based in Northern Manhattan,
WE ACT works for environmental and social justice issues of land use; brownfields
redevelopment; transportation and air pollution; and environmental health.
Shepard is the chair of the National Environmental Justice
Advisory Council (NEJAC) to the Environmental Protection Agency and is co-chair
of the Northeast Environmental Justice Network.
New Resources
A new website on children's environmental health is available
from EPA. The America's Children and the Environment site is based on the recently
published report, America's Children and the Environment: Measures of Contaminants,
Body Burdens and Illnesses. The study reports on trends for levels of environmental
contaminants in air, water, food, and soil; concentrations of contaminants measured
in the bodies of women and children; and childhood illnesses that could be influenced
by environmental contaminants. www.epa.gov/envirohealth/children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently published its
2nd edition of Pediatric Environmental Health, a guide to children's
environmental health that is also known as the AAP "Green Book". Edited
by pediatrician Ruth A. Etzel, MD, PhD, the soft cover 723-page handbook features
more than 40 chapters on identification, prevention and treatment of childhood
environmental health problems. Topics include strategies to reduce asthma triggers
in the environment and reduce exposure to pesticides. New chapters cover arsenic,
gasoline and its additives, irradiation of food, metals (including chromium,
manganese and nickel), chemical-biological terrorism, and environmental threats
to children's health in developing countries. Each chapter includes a list of
frequently asked questions and responses. Non-AAP-members can purchase a copy
for $39.95; AAP member price is $35.95. To order, call the toll-free AAP order
line at 888-227-1770, visit AAP's on-line bookstore at www.aap.org/bookstore
or fax your request to 847-228-1281.
Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal
of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences is now available
to everyone online immediately after publication without a subscription and
at no cost. It can be accessed at http://ehis.niehs.nih.gov/.
Michigan State University researchers have developed
a new web-based tool that is much more effective than current methods for predicting
which children are at increased risk of lead poisoning. The new tool, which
was developed in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Community Health
and funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, collects
detailed information from the parent about a child's residential address, housing
condition, socioeconomic status and race - all pertinent information when determining
lead-poisoning risk - and provides a highly reliable assessment of that risk.
Existing screening tools rely primarily on Medicaid status and classifying ZIP
codes as high- or low-risk. This new method uses the census block group, a much
smaller, more homogeneous geographic unit. The site, http://midata.msu.edu/bll/,
is available to physicians who enter child's name, current address, and birth
date, and answers questions about other risk factors. The web site then returns
a recommendation as to whether the child's lead poisoning risk is sufficient
to merit blood lead level (BLL) testing. It also will provide estimates of the
probabilities that the child has BLL above 10 µg/dl. By comparing their
predictions to actual blood lead test results, Kaplowitz and colleagues determined
that their new screening tool would have identified at least 96% of the 1-year-old
children whose blood lead levels is 10 µg/dl or greater.
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