Just one week after President Obama signed the landmark
economic stimulus legislation into law, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development announced recipients of the additional lead and healthy homes funds.
As reported in the previous Alert,
the House and Senate had both recommended $100 million of the stimulus for HUD’s
Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control (OHHLHC), although the activities
eligible were slightly different. The conference committee assembled to create
compromise legislation ultimately choose a third path, broadening the language
to appropriate $100 million to the general account of OHHLHC. This allowed funding
of healthy homes grants, in addition to lead hazard grants, while retaining
the requirement that HUD first fund applicants that met the threshold score
for eligibility but were not awarded a grant in the previous
round. This language was a victory for the Alliance, National Center for Healthy
Housing, and other advocates who encouraged a wider view of healthy housing
in the stimulus spending rather than focusing efforts on lead abatement.
With the exception of $500,000 retained by HUD for oversight
and management, HUD released the entire supplemental stimulus money to entities
that had scored eligible for a grant in the last round. This included just under
$78 million in lead hazard control grants, a single $2.6 million lead hazard
reduction demonstration grant, $17 million in healthy homes demonstration grants,
and $1.8 in healthy homes technical studies.
In addition to the direct funding of lead and healthy homes
through the OHHLHC grants, the final stimulus bill included support for programs
that touch upon healthy housing concerns. Five billion dollars were allocated
for weatherization activities, in addition to $6.3 billion for increasing energy
efficiency in federally supported housing. It also included $2 billion for the
neighborhood stabilization program (which can allow for the rehabilitation of
foreclosed or vacant properties), $2.25 billion for the HOME program, and $1
billion for CDBG. Addition funding supported a Prevention-Wellness Trust and
health workforce development, as well as extensive support for job training
efforts that could include healthy homes training.
Final
EPA Model RRP Course for Renovators Released
In mid-February, the US Environmental Protection Agency
released its model renovator training course: “Lead
Safety for Renovation, Repair, and Painting.” This course
was developed by the EPA, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD), to train contractors how to work safely in housing
with lead-based paint and comply with EPA’s Renovation, Repair, and Painting
(RRP) Rule as well as with HUD’s Lead Safe Housing Rule. By April 2010,
the RRP rule will require virtually every contractor working in pre-1978 homes
to complete an 8-hour course in lead safe work practices to gain certification
or face a Federal fine of up to $37,500 a day.
Based upon the existing joint EPA/HUD curriculum used since
2003, the new model class has been updated to reflect the requirements of the
RRP rule, including the new requirement that the class include a minimum of
two hours of hands-on activities. In order to create room for the hands-on activities,
as well as discussion of the new requirements for RRP, the model curriculum
cuts down on the amount of time spent discussing health impacts of lead. The
new class also focuses more on prohibited work practices and less on alternative,
safer work practices such as working wet.
Training providers wishing to provide certified renovator
classes under the RRP rule have the option of using the model course “off
the shelf” or developing their own curriculum and having it approved by
the EPA. By regulation, the certified renovator training must be a minimum of
eight hours, including two hours of hands-on activities, and include content
on: background on lead, review of regulations, test kit use, work practices
(including containment and cleanup), clearance or cleaning verification, waste
disposal, on-the-job training delivery, and record keeping.
Training providers will be able to apply for accreditation
from the EPA to teach the new class starting on April 22, 2009. In October 2009,
renovation firms may start applying for certifications. By April 2010, all requirements
of the rule go into full effect, and thereafter only certified firms and individuals
may legally perform the work covered by the regulation.
There is a dire shortage of trainers to meet projected
needs. EPA believes that there are only 194 firms currently in the business
of providing accredited lead training and estimates 236,000 individuals will
need to be trained prior to April 2010. Meeting the expected demand will require
hundreds of additional firms to enter the market. Especially needed are trainers
who understand local renovation practices and have connections to their contracting
community. The Alliance urges non-profit organizations and community housing
organizations that are well suited to take on this role to consider becoming
accredited training providers.
For more information on the requirements to become an accredited
training provider, as well as to learn more about a train-the-trainer class
being offered by the Alliance to help those interested in becoming trainers,
visit our
website or contact Patrick MacRoy at pmacroy@afhh.org.
Advocates
Note Flaws in the Portrayal of Blood Lead Level Trends
The March 2009 issue of Pediatrics
featured research by a team of CDC scientists on trends in blood lead levels
and BLL testing based upon national survey data. The study showed few surprises,
with a continuing decline in the number of children with a BLL greater than
or equal to the CDC’s level of concern, 10µg/dL, but with substantial
disparities remaining, especially amongst non-Hispanic
black children, who continue to have the highest rate of lead poisoning. An
Associated
Press story describing the research and picked-up by newspapers
around the country, however, wrongly stated that the study showed that racial
disparities to be largely nonexistent, and in the view of many advocates generally
discounted lead poisoning as an ongoing problem.
In addition to the misstatement in regards to racial disparities,
many advocates noted that the AP article failed to report on the percentage
of children with levels over 5µg/dL or over 2.5µg/dL. While both
the Pediatrics article and the AP story note there is no safe level of lead,
the emphasis was clearly placed on reporting the percentage of children exceeding
CDC’s now sadly outdated level of concern. Using a level of 5, the current
level of concern in Vermont, Cleveland, and Chicago, the study showed 7.4% of
children exceeding it, with an additional 23.6% of children having a blood lead
level between 2.5 and 5.
The Alliance hopes future studies and reporting will do
more to highlight the importance of eliminating the remaining racial and socio-economic
disparities, as well as the importance of preventing all lead exposures, not
just those which occur to children will blood lead levels over 10.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is considering
changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a federal law enacted in
1976 to regulate chemicals produced in or imported into the U.S. The Committee’s
Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection
held a hearing on Feb. 26 about gaps in the statute, how the gaps hinder effective
chemical safety policy, and some possible changes to TSCA.
TSCA was intended to provide data on potential health and
environmental risks of all chemicals and mixtures and to provide EPA with regulatory
tools to protect the public from unreasonable risk of injury to health or the
environment. But critics contend that TSCA has not generated data on the health
risks for most of the approximately 80,000 chemicals currently in use and some
700 new chemicals introduced into commerce annually. Even though TSCA authorizes
EPA to require companies to test their chemical products and generate risk data,
rulemakings take years to finalize, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each,
and are subject to routine legal counter-action by companies that do not want
to comply.
Moreover, the burden of proof for EPA regulatory action
has proved so high that banning a chemical is virtually impossible. For example,
asbestos––a known carcinogen that kills 8,000 Americans every year––has
not been banned under TSCA because the courts have ruled that EPA did not meet
its evidentiary burden of proving that asbestos is an “unreasonable risk”
to the public.
At the House hearing, the Government Accountability Office
(GAO) and numerous other witnesses called for the U.S. to adopt a system similar
to the European Union’s Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of
Chemicals (REACH). Europe has placed the burden on manufacturers to prove that
chemicals used in commerce are safe. Even chemical industry witnesses, while
opposing a REACH-like system in the U.S., called for strengthening TSCA significantly
to increase public confidence in chemical safety
Environmental
Groups Sue Companies over Failure to Disclose Cleaning Product Ingredients under
NY State Law
Non-profit law firm, Earthjustice, has sued Proctor &
Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and other household cleaner manufacturing giants
for refusing to follow a New York state law requiring them to disclose the chemical
ingredients in their products and the health risks they pose. The lawsuit was
filed on behalf of a coalition of state and national environmental groups including
Women’s Voices for the Earth, Environmental Advocates of New York, New
York Public Interest Research Group, Riverkeeper, Sierra
Club, and American Lung Association in New York.
New York state law requires household cleaner companies
selling their products in New York to file semi-annual reports with the state
listing the chemicals contained in their products and describing any company
research on these chemicals’ health and environmental effects. But since
the law passed in 1976, not a single report has been filed. In the fall of 2008,
Earthjustice sent letters to more than a dozen companies asking them to comply
with the law. The companies targeted in this lawsuit - Proctor & Gamble,
Colgate-Palmolive, Church and Dwight and Reckitt-Benckiser - each ignored or
refused this request.
This case could have national implications, as it
is just one example of the larger push for ingredient disclosure. The Alliance,
along with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Sierra Club, have
campaigned against EPA to require the government to mandate that air freshener
manufacturers disclose the results of safety assessments and properly label
their products with full ingredient lists. For more information on Earthjustice's
suit, see their press
release. For more information about the air freshener disclosure
fight, see the December
Alert article.
Ohio
Drops Lawsuit against Lead Paint Manufacturers
After a two year fight, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray
dropped a lawsuit against lead paint manufacturers accused of violating the
state’s public nuisance law and committing fraud by manufacturing and
selling lead paint. Money from the manufacturers would have been used to clean
up lead paint and treat children who have been poisoned by it. The lawsuit was
filed in 2007 by former Ohio Attorney General Marc
Dann. Cordray concluded this February that the state wasn’t likely to
win.
The dropped suit comes months after a disappointing decision
by the Rhode Island Supreme Court to overturn the landmark verdict finding paint
companies liable for creating a public nuisance in Rhode Island. In 2006, a
six-member jury found that Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries, and Millenium Holdings
(owners of Glidden) were responsible for creating a public nuisance when they
intentionally manufactured, marketed, and sold a product they knew to pose public
health hazards. The state’s victory represented the first time that a
state or local government prevailed against the lead paint industry following
the conclusion of a trial. However, the industry appealed the jury’s verdict
to the Rhode Island Supreme Court, who ultimately overturned the decision in
July 2008. In Rhode Island’s case, the court said the state failed to
prove that the presence of lead paint was a public nuisance and that the lawsuit
should have been dismissed.
Attorney General Cordray’s decision to drop the case
is a blow to many of Ohio’s cities, including Cincinnati, who have filed
their own lawsuits against paint manufacturers. Although the decision does not
directly affect those cases, some city officials may be inclined to follow the
AG’s example.
In the fight to improve conditions of substandard
housing, legal remedies are sometimes necessary to hold corporations or individuals
accountable for wrong-doing. The Alliance joins advocates across the country
in continuing to hold the lead industry accountable for the costs of cleaning
up the problem it created.
Belmont
Enacts First U.S. Municipal Ban on Smoking in Multi-Family Housing
Some apartment residents of Belmont, California
will breathe a little easier starting this year, now that one of the nation’s
strictest anti-smoking laws has gone into effect. The City Council passed a
law in October 2007, banning smoking anywhere in the city except in detached
homes and yards, streets, and some sidewalks, and designated outside smoking
areas. According to city officials, the law was propelled
by an organized group of residents (mostly retirees) who were fed up with the
irritations of tobacco smoke coming from their neighbors’ apartments.
Several other cities have passed bans on smoking in privately
owned apartment buildings, but Belmont has enacted an even stricter law, prohibiting
smoking in any apartment that shares a floor or ceiling with another, including
condominiums.
The law took effect on Jan. 9, 2009, after a 14-month
grace period that allowed apartment buildings time to comply with the new rules
and tenants who objected to the changes to move. The law is controversial to
some who never thought they would be prohibited from smoking in their own homes,
however it is hailed as a triumph for residents who long suffered exposures
to indoor air pollutants and second hand smoke in multi-family apartment buildings.
Violation of the law could result in $100 fines. To read more about the smoking
ban, see an article in the International
Herald Tribune.
Alliance
News
The Alliance would like to acknowledge with
deep sadness the passing of pediatric toxicologist Michael Shannon, who was
the former head of emergency medicine at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
Dr. Shannon had tremendous concern for lead poisoned children and will be missed
greatly among friends and advocates. The notice of Dr. Shannon’s passing
in the Boston
Globe details just a few of his renowned accomplishments.
Looking for CEHRC?
The separate website for the Alliance’s Community Environmental Health
Resource Center (CEHRC), www.cehrc.org, now brings viewers to the Alliance home
page. Frequently used material from CEHRC.org is
still available. Over the next few months, we will be working to
better integrate the materials that were on CEHRC.org into the other sections
of afhh.org. Please e-mail us if there is something from the former CEHRC.org
you need but cannot locate.
Upcoming Events
EPA is holding a National Bed
Bug Summit, April 14 through April 15, 2009, on the topic of bed bug resurgence
in the United States. The meeting will be held in the EPA East Building at 12th
and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the first
day, and from 9 a.m. to noon on the last day. Read the Notice
of Public Meeting in the Federal Registrar. The agenda will be
posted on the EPA website in advance of the meeting.
A national conference on “Approaches
to Managing Mold in Buildings” will be held April 27-29, 2009, in Orlando,
FL. Sponsored by the University of Tulsa, the conference will cover the “latest
research and applied outcomes to use in field practice from key national and
international experts.” For more information, visit www.utulsa.edu/iaqprogram
or call 918-631-3088.
The 2009 National Lead Poisoning Prevention and Healthy
Homes Conference will occur April 28-May 1, 2009, in Orlando, FL. The conference
will provide a wealth of information and a series of panel discussions from
healthy homes professionals and advocates. For more information, see www.LeadMoldConferences.com.
Join NeighborWorks America in
Phoenix, AZ, May 4-6th 2009. Two days of green practice-oriented clinics on
May 4 and 5 will be combined with a one-day green symposium, “Greening
Your Roadmap to Succeed in a Changing Landscape” on May 6.
This is your opportunity to hear how your peers in community development are
adopting green concepts and delivering valuable returns. For more information
or to register, please visit the Phoenix
Training Institute website.
Join premier experts and future leaders at the Communities
in Action for Asthma-Friendly Environments National Forum on June 4-5, 2009,
in Washington, D.C. Don't miss this chance to learn how to improve program quality
and impact, build a sustainable asthma care enterprise, and expand the scope
of your services to improve the health and quality of life of everyone with
asthma in your community. Register today at https://www.epaasthmaforum.com.
Save the date for the
symposium entitled “Promoting Environmental and Policy Change to Support
Healthy Aging,” to be held Sept. 15-16, 2009, in Chapel Hill, NC. This
symposium is a third in a series funded by CDC's Healthy Aging Program. More
information on this symposium can be found at www.prc-han.org.
The 2009 National Environmental Public Health Conference:
Healthy
People in a Healthy Environment seeks to promote the nation’s
environmental health capacity by enhancing the expertise of environmental health
professionals - including public health and healthcare professionals, academic
researchers, representatives from communities and organizations, as well as
advocacy and business groups with a primary interest in environmental public
health. The conference will be held October 25-28 in Atlanta, GA. Abstracts
are due May 8; submit
an abstract electronically.
