Greensboro Advocates Win New Code Enforcement
System
Historically, Greensboro, NC's code enforcement
system has placed a higher priority on abandoned cars and unkempt
lawns than on substandard housing. Housing inspections occurred
only when tenants complained, which happened infrequently due to
fear of landlord retaliation, and many cases were inexplicably dropped
before compliance occurred. In 2002, Greensboro Housing Coalition
(GHC) began to highlight adverse health impacts from poorly maintained
housing as a way to redirect city priorities and strengthen code
enforcement. GHC staff and volunteers went door-to-door in targeted
neighborhoods to inform residents about lead and perform health
and safety inspections in more than 1,200 high-risk homes. The group
documented bad housing conditions, including paint deterioration
and the presence of lead in damaged paint (using colormetric spot
test kits). GHC found a 40% positive rate for lead paint hazards,
and presented their findings to the Greensboro City Council last
December.
On May 20, the City Council voted unanimously
for a “certificate of occupancy” ordinance that requires
periodic city inspections of all rental properties to ensure safe
conditions, and a new housing code based on the International Building
Code. The Council also approved funding for three new housing inspectors,
bringing the total to 8. Effective Jan. 1, 2004, the new law will
ensure that all rental housing will be inspected every five years.
Inspectors will be trained about the new law and procedures over
the next several months. Between now and Jan. 1, GHC intends to
press officials to make certain that policies are adopted to ensure
that lead-safe work practices are followed for painting and other
repairs in pre-1978 properties.
Community Testing Documents Widespread
Lead Hazards in NYC Neighborhood
The Pratt Area Community Council (PACC), a
community-based organization, recently released a report highlighting
high rates of high risk housing in a low-income community in the
Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, NY. “The Politics of
Poison” found more than 1/3 of buildings within a 12-block
area contained dangerous levels of lead. PACC utilized area high
school students trained as Lead Sampling Technicians to take dust
wipe samples. Students tested 59 units over a period of three months.
The dust samples indicated lead levels between 5 to 100 times greater
than the established EPA threshold for hazardous levels of lead
in dust. Ninety percent of the residents residing in the homes sampled
were African-American and Latino and 57% were Medicaid recipients.
The report urges the NYC Department of Health to expand site investigation
(as a pending municipal ordinance known as Intro 101A would require),
provide case management for children with lead levels of 5 micrograms
per deciliter and above, and partner with community-based organizations
to expand blood lead screening to all children under six, especially
children in high-risk communities and those receiving Medicaid.
PACC also recommends that the Department of Housing Preservation
and Development and the Department of Health develop a two-year
plan to test every apartment building in Bedford-Stuyvesant and
other high-risk communities to help prevent children’s exposure
to lead. The complete report is available online at www.prattarea.org/leadpaint.pdf.
Paint Industry to Put Warning Labels on
Paint Cans
On May 12, 2003, Attorneys General from 45
states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands,
Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico announced an agreement with the
National Paint & Coating Association (NPCA) requiring the paint
industry to put warning labels on their products alerting consumers
to the danger of lead exposure during home renovations. Thanks to
the efforts of advocates, the agreement does more than merely mandate
warning labels. The NPCA will offer free approved training courses
in lead-safe work practices for contractors, painters, home inspection
companies, code inspectors, maintenance workers, homeowners, property
owners, housing authorities, community and social service organizations,
and state and municipal agencies. The NPCA also is required to partner
with safety equipment providers to offer discounts on HEPA vacuum
cleaners and NIOSH-approved respirators. The companies’ commitments
under the agreement pale in comparison to the scale of the lead
poisoning problem in this country, and the agreement is unlikely
to protect children at highest risk, who live in older, poorly maintained
housing.
Changes Proposed to Section 8 Voucher
Program
The Bush administration has proposed to convert
the Section 8 housing voucher program into a block grant to the
states, and has asked for less funding from Congress than is needed
to support all vouchers likely to be in use next year. The plan
could seriously jeopardize the availability of housing vouchers
for low-income people while needlessly expanding the bureaucracy
needed to run the program. Enactment of the scheme would dilute
the protections to child health that are presently provided through
"Housing Quality Standards" and HUD's lead-safe housing
rule, leaving families using federal vouchers to pay for their housing
at the mercy of local and state codes, most of which are not as
protective as federal standards. Visit the National Low Income Housing
Coalition’s website at http://nlihc.org/news/0507031.htm
for more information.
Michigan Governor Creates Top Level Task
Force to Address Lead Poisoning
In January 2003, the Detroit Free Press ran
a 5-part series on lead poisoning (see www.freep.com/lead/index.htm),
followed by more stories in April about lead-contaminated sites
of former lead smelters, foundries, and alloy makers in Detroit
and statewide. Immediately following the April stories, Michigan
Governor Jennifer Granholm asked the state Departments of Environmental
Quality and Community Health to develop a statewide response to
the problem. According to the Free Press, the state agencies will
establish a task force of top government officials,
including the Michigan’s new surgeon general, and will seek
to:
Find more funding for the state's lead-abatement
program,
Gather information about old lead smelter
sites,
Set up a state registry of lead-free homes,
Revise state building codes to consider
lead hazards,
Create incentives for doctors to test young
children for lead, and
Ensure that state medical and nursing schools
and teacher colleges teach their students about lead poisoning.
Recent Developments in Lead Industry
Litigation
On May 29, 2003, Superior Court Judge Michael
A. Silverstein ruled that Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick
Lynch may retry the state's lawsuit against the lead industry in
much the same way it did last fall. Defendants Atlantic Richfield
and NL Industries tried unsuccessfully to dramatically alter the
retrial by forcing the state to proceed with a comprehensive trial
based on the 100 houses in Rhode Island that are alleged to have
poisoned the most children. Silverstein rejected this move by the
two defendants, and ruled that the state may retry the first phase
of its original suit to determine whether the presence of lead paint
throughout buildings in Rhode Island constitutes a public nuisance.
On June 19, Judge Silverstein will set a new trial date, most likely
for sometime in the first half of next year.
In New Jersey, the counties and cities that
sued the lead industry in December 2001 appealed the dismissal of
their case last November by Mass Tort Judge Marina Corodemus. Judge
Corodemus had dismissed the 26 consolidated cases on grounds that
the suits violated the separation of powers doctrine, the commerce
clause, and on other grounds. The appeal will be heard in the Superior
Court Appellate Division.
Maurci’s House in Birmingham Honors
Memory of Parent Activist
Citizens Lead Education Poisoning Prevention
(CLEPP), a community-based organization in Birmingham, AL, has opened,
Maurci’s House, a lead-safe house to provide temporary shelter
to families whose homes contain lead or other environmental health
hazards. The lead-safe house is named in honor of Maurci Jackson,
parent activist, who founded the Chicago Parents Against Lead and
co-founded the national United Parents Against Lead. CLEPP will
help families residing in the shelter address lead and other health
hazards in their homes. Maurci's House is funded by contributions
from Baptist Medical Center Princeton, the Birmingham/ Jefferson
County Lead Hazard Control Grant Program, the Healthy Homes Program,
and generous donations from community members. For more information,
visit CLEPP’s website at www.clepp.org/programs.htm.
Disclosure Enforcement Produces 4,500
More Lead-Safe Units
EPA, HUD, and the Department of Justice recently
settled two cases against Los Angeles area property management companies
that failed to provide tenants with information about lead-based
paint hazards. As part of the settlement agreements, Westside Rehab
Corp and SK Management Company will pay $40,000 in civil penalties,
and $60,000 towards two child health programs. These companies will
also test for and remediate lead-based paint hazards in over 4,500
apartment units across the country - approximately 3,223 units in
California, and 1,446 units in Arkansas, Washington, DC, Kentucky,
Maryland, Tennessee and Texas. For more information on this enforcement
action, visit EPA’s website at www.epa.gov/region09/.
Studies Link Lead to Cognitive Deficits
Below 10 µg/dL and Delayed Puberty
The April 17, 2003 issue of the New England
Journal of Medicine (Vol. 348, No. 16) carries two research studies
linking low-level lead exposure to cognitive impairment and delayed
puberty in girls. “Intellectual Impairment in Children with
Blood Lead Concentrations below 10 µg/dL per Deciliter”
found that the largest decline in cognitive impairment in young
children occurred well below 10 µg/dL. Researchers screened
172 children at six to twelve month intervals from ages 6 to 60
months. Each increase of 10 µg/dL of lead was associated with
a 4.6-point decrease in IQ, while increased lead levels below 10
were correlated with a 7.4-point decrease in IQ. Richard L. Canfield,
Ph.D, Charles R. Henderson, Jr. MA, Deborah A. Cory-Slechta, Ph.D.,
Christopher Cox, Ph.D., Todd A Jusko, BS and Bruce Lanphear, MD,
MPH authored the study.
“Blood Lead Concentration and Delayed
Puberty in Girls,” examined blood lead levels of girls ages
8 to 18 and found that low-level lead exposure was associated with
a delay in the onset of puberty for Hispanic and African-American
girls. Researchers compared blood lead levels and pubertal development
of 2,186 girls enrolled in NHANES III. Authors, Sherry G. Selevan,
Ph.D., Deborah C. Rice, Ph.D., Karen A Hogan, M.S., Susan Y. Euling,
Ph.D., Andrea Pfahles-Hutchens, M.S., and James Bethel, Ph.D., compared
the age at menarche and a statistical scale for physical maturation
with blood lead levels. Blood lead levels of 3 µg/dL were
correlated with delayed puberty, when compared with girls with lower
levels of exposure.
Changes and Additions to the Alliance’s
List Serves
For the past several years, the Alliance has
sponsored two list serves dedicated to discussions of lead poisoning
prevention issues - Leadnet and LSAmerica. Since 1998, Leadnet has
provided a forum for non-profit advocates to share information and
ideas about primary prevention policies and strategies. LSAmerica
began in 1999 as part of the Campaign for a Lead-Safe America, as
a forum for sharing information and tools for prevention education
and later evolved into a discussion forum for broader primary prevention
issues. The Alliance is consolidating the Leadnet and LSAmerica
list serves into one open, larger Leadnet list.
We are also pleased to announce the establishment
of a new list serve: Healthyhomesnet. Healthyhomesnet will provide
a forum to share information and ideas about policies and strategies
to promote and sustain health considerations in renovation, maintenance,
operation, and construction of housing. We'd like to focus particular
attention on maintenance and rehab of existing properties, practices
and policies that apply to low-income housing, holistic approaches,
and primary prevention. We welcome postings on lead poisoning that
are relevant to other housing-related health hazards.
If you would like to subscribe to Leadnet and/or
Healthyhomesnet, please send an email to lfudala@afhh.org
with "subscribe Leadnet" and/or “subscribe Healthyhomesnet”
in the subject line and the name of your organization and your full
contact information in the body of the email.
Funding Opportunities for Community-Based
Organizations
On April 22, the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced the availability of grants for
projects that seek to address environmental and/or occupational
hazards to low-income, immigrant, and minority populations. A primary
goal of this program is to facilitate trust between disadvantaged
communities, researchers, and health care providers. Projects should
be multidisciplinary in nature and must include a research scientist,
health care provider, and community-based organization. NIEHS plans
to award approximately $1.67 million for five to six projects. NIOSH
will fund two to three new grants totaling $500,000. A letter of
intent must be submitted to NIEHS by September 17 and full proposals
are due on October 17. For more information, visit http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-ES-03-007.html.
EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice
(OEJ) recently announced a new grant program for eligible non-profit
community-based organizations. “Environmental Justice Collaborative
Problem Solving Grant Program,” will fund capacity building
and collaborative problem solving to address one or more environmental
and public health problems facing high-risk communities. OEJ hopes
to disseminate lessons learned so that findings can be widely used
by other community-based organizations. OEJ expects to fund 15 community-based
organizations for three-year periods totaling $100,000 each. Applications
are due on September 30. For more information on this grant program
including the application kit, visit OEJ’s website at www.epa.gov/compliance/recent/ej.html.
