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IN THIS ISSUE:
On July 25, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported
the VA-HUD-Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill for FY2003.
The Senate Committee has recommended a total of $201 million
for lead hazard reduction, which is an increase of $75 million
above the President’s budget request (and $86 million
above this year’s level). Within this amount, the Senate
funded Healthy Homes at $10 million, the current level. The
$75 million increase would go to a separate pot for a new
“urban lead hazard reduction program.” In contrast
to the current competitive grants process, these funds will
be divided evenly among 25 major urban areas that submit a
plan acceptable to HUD that demonstrates sufficient capacity
for remediating lead hazards in properties occupied by very
low-income families. The HUD Secretary would determine the
25 urban areas based on pre-1940 rental units, significant
paint deterioration, and documented cases of lead-poisoned
children. It is unclear whether the House will provide a similar
increase when it marks up its bill in September and whether
the base program or this new initiative gets the increase.
If a new urban lead hazard demonstration is agreed to at
conference in late September, a number of questions remain,
including: which 25 urban areas HUD will identify as eligible,
including how urban areas that have more than one city or
county will be handled. For additional detail, see the Senate
Committee Report (S. Rept. 107-222) at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&dbname=cp107&maxdocs=100&report=sr222.107&sel=TOC_173458&.
On September 4 the lead industry will be on trial for the
first time in Rhode Island in the first of a new generation
of government lawsuits to hold them accountable. In February,
a judge granted the state’s request to focus the first
phase of the trial on the central claim against the defendants
that lead based paint in public and private buildings constitutes
a public nuisance. This case will have national implications.
To focus attention on this historic trial, the Get the Lead
Out Coalition, a project of the Childhood Lead Action Project,
is sponsoring a rally on Wednesday, September 18th at 12:00
pm at Memorial Park on South Main Street in Providence (across
from Superior Court). CLAP strongly urges advocates from the
Northeast to attend the rally and show their support for government
action to hold lead-based paint manufacturers accountable.
In addition, to represent the number of lead poisoned children in Rhode
Island, Organized Parents Against Lead (OPAL), is collecting children’s
shoes to be displayed at the rally. OPAL hopes to collect over 2,000 pairs
of shoes in sizes for infants through youth age 3 to symbolize the number
of children poisoned in RI annually. (OPAL was among 34 recipients to
be honored recently by EPA for outstanding service and commitment to preserve
the environment in New England.) Please bring or mail the shoes to Organized
Parents Against Lead at the Childhood Lead Action Project, 421 Elmwood
Avenue, Providence, RI 02907 or call 401-785-1310 for more information
on the shoe drive or the rally. For more information, on the RI case and
other governmental suits against the lead industry, visit the “Legal
Remedies” section of the Alliance’s website,
www.afhh.org.
The Alliance’s International Program has been busy
preparing for the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa
from August 26 - September 4. The WSSD’s purpose is
to review progress made since the Rio Earth Summit a decade
ago and to develop action plans to advance environmental protection
and sustainable development. The Alliance will take advantage
of the unique opportunity provided by the WSSD to advance
leaded gasoline phase-out and lead poisoning prevention worldwide
by launching the Global Lead Initiative, www.globalleadnet.org/pdf/GlobalLeadInitiative.pdf,
as a WSSD partnership for implementation; convening a meeting
of the Global Lead Network (GLN); and sponsoring several panels
and workshops on clean fuels, urban pollution, toxics, and
children’s environmental health.
The Alliance will provide regular updates on WSSD proceedings though
our Global Lead Network website at www.globalleadnet.org.
Visit the site now and during the Summit for up to date information about
Alliance/GLN events and related WSSD proceedings. For additional information,
contact Laura Fudala at lfudala@afhh.org.
HUD's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control has
released a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for “Operation
Lead Elimination Action Program” (Operation LEAP). Non-profit
organizations and for-profit entities are eligible to receive
funds; $6.5 million is available. Applications are due October
31.
The program will support strategies to mobilize substantial
private sector resources to address lead hazards in housing,
especially innovative regional or nationwide fund raising
and/or leveraging and mobilization strategies to yield significant
private sector contributions over two-years. Funds may be
used to raise funds, mobilize other resources and coordinate
activities. Funding can also be used to determine if lead-based
paint hazards are present, conduct lead hazard control, perform
abatement (if only a few surfaces are coated with lead-based
paint), and relocate families while lead hazard control is
completed. The NOFA is posted at www.hud.gov/offices/lead.
The National Center for Healthy Housing has appointed Rebecca
Morley as its new Executive Director. Effective October 1,
Morley succeeds the organization’s founder, Nick Farr,
who is retiring. Morley brings broad experience in a range
of environmental, health, and housing policy issues. Most
recently with ICF Consulting, Morley previously worked for
the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the
United States Senate, and the U.S. Public Interest Research
Group.
Founded as the National Center for Lead-Safe Housing in 1992,
the National Center expanded its mission and changed its name
in 2001 in recognition that substandard properties typically
pose a host of health hazards, including mold, mildew, and
allergens that can trigger asthma attacks and cause other
respiratory problems.
The House of Representatives Subcommittee on Regulatory
Reform and Oversight of the Committee on Small Business held
a hearing in June to review the costs, compliance and science
of EPA’s expanded reporting requirements for businesses
that use or manufacture products containing lead. Several
small business interests, trade organizations and business
owners called the requirements of the rule onerous and questioned
the science of whether lead should be classified as a persistent,
bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemical.
The rule, which took full effect in April 2001, substantially
lowers the reporting threshold under the federal Toxic Releases
Inventory (TRI) program, requiring facilities to report releases
or uses of lead or lead compounds above 100 pounds per year
to the air, water, and land. Old rules required that facilities
report only if they manufacture or process more than 25,000
pounds annually or use more than 10,000 pounds annually. The
TRI rule is an annual collection of data on toxic emissions
that is made available to the public through several sources,
including the Internet. At this stage the seriousness of the
threat to this rule is unclear. The Alliance will continue
to monitor these developments and alert advocates to any possible
threats. For more information on the TRI, please visit EPA’s
website at www.epa.gov/tri.
In June, the DC City Council passed the “Childhood
Lead Poisoning Screening and Reporting Act of 2002,”
requiring blood lead screening of young children and establishing
a reporting and surveillance system for lead tests. The law
requires all health care providers to perform a blood lead
test for every child in specific age brackets during well-child
visits unless parent consent is withheld or a test was performed
within the past 12 months. Children must be tested once between
the ages of 6-9 months and again between the ages of 22-26
months. If a child is older than 26 months and has never been
tested, he or she must be tested twice before age 6. The law
requires all test results to be reported to parents or guardians
and to the District. The law also requires all contracts with
providers of Medicaid services to children to include an explicit
requirement that the law be followed. The City Council took
action in part to avoid losing funding from CDC for lead screening,
education and case management.
In July attorneys filed motions in a class action suit against
the city for lack of screening by Medicaid providers. Plaintiffs
cited statistics that fewer than 22 percent of the 29,000
DC children under 5 were screened for lead poisoning last
year. The motions seek a court order to force the city to
screen all children and payment by the city of a $500 fine
for each child to establish a fund to expand screening in
the District. The suit was filed in 1993, revealing vast shortcomings
with regard to screening and prompting a U.S. District Judge
to place the system under her oversight in 1996.
The City of Rochester, New York has pledged $5 million to
combat childhood lead poisoning over the next three fiscal
years. Efforts will begin in October with a $1 million commitment
of CDBG funding for FY 2002/03. Rochester will target households
in high-risk neighborhoods. The lead hazard reduction program
will focus on window, entry door and porch deck replacement,
as well as paint stabilization. The Rochester Lead Free Coalition
(RLFC) was instrumental in encouraging the City to provide
the needed funding. In announcing the funding, Mayor William
A. Johnson, Jr. acknowledged that it "represents a small
down payment toward the ultimate cost of eliminating the lead
hazards which pose such a serious public health threat to
Rochester's most disadvantaged children." Ninety percent
(90%) of Rochester's lead poisoned children come from households
receiving public assistance. For more information, contact
Patricia Boprey at pat.boprey@viahealth.org
or Robert Barrows, City of Rochester, barrowsb@cityofrochester.gov.
The New York City Lead Poisoning Prevention Program has produced
a report summarizing the first six full years (1995-2000)
of mandatory reporting of all childhood blood lead levels
and historical data for 1970-1994. The report also provides
a description of the population of lead poisoned children
in New York City. The report is available at http://nyc.gov/html/doh/html/lead/l2002.html
or by calling (212) BAN-LEAD.
The July 2002 issue of Pediatrics (Vol. 110, No. 1) carries
a research article by Ahmed Gomaa, MD, ScD; Howard Hu, MD,
ScD; David Bellinger, PhD; and Joel Schwartz, PhD, et al.
“Maternal Bone Lead as an Independent Risk Factor for
Fetal Neurotoxicity: A Prospective Study,” concludes
that high concentrations of maternal bone lead constitutes
an independent risk factor for fetal lead exposure. The study
examined 197 mothers and infants in Mexico and found that
high levels of lead in the mothers’ bones during pregnancy
corresponded to lower mental functioning for children at age
2. Researchers believe that lead can remain in bones for at
least 10 years and cause fetal exposure during pregnancy when
the lead is released from the mother’s bones. The study
can be obtained online at www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/abstract/110/1/110.
The August 9, 2002 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
[51(31); 684-686] contains a report describing five cases
of lead poisoning in California from imported candies and
folk remedies. In each case, documented during 1999-2000,
lead paint was ruled out as the source of lead exposure. “Childhood
Lead Poisoning Associated with Tamarind Candy and Folk Remedies
---California, 1999—2000” underscores the importance
of screening and conducting a thorough risk assessment of
children with elevated blood lead levels, including taking
a complete history and conducting environmental sampling.
The article is available online at www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5131a3.htm.
The Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership
Summit will be held in Washington, DC at the Hyatt Regency
Hotel Capitol Hill on October 23-27, 2002. The conference
will explore a range of environmental issues including lead
poisoning, asthma, air pollution, and food quality. This conference
is a follow-up to a summit held in 1991 attended by over one
thousand national and international environmental activists.
The second summit will assess the progress made since 1991
and develop strategies for the future. For more information,
visit www.weact.org/savethedate/2002/2002_Oct_23.html.
The Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program
(CHLP) is seeking nominations to honor ten outstanding individuals
for finding creative ways of bringing health care services
to communities with unmet needs. Recipients are awarded $120,000:
$105,000 for program support and $15,000 as a personal stipend.
A letter of intent is due on September 30 and final nominations
must be received by December 2. For more information, contact
CHLP, 30 Winter Street, Suite 920, Boston, MA 02108, 617-426-9772,
www.communityhealthleaders.org.
**For information on the Alliance’s international programs and
worldwide prevention activities, please visit our Global Lead Network
website at www.globalleadnet.org** |
