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IN THIS ISSUE:
The Bush Administration recently announced that it plans
to abandon federal leadership and oversight of Medicaid screening
for lead poisoning, and instead leave it up to each state
to decide whether to screen low-income children. Since 1989,
Federal law has required routine screening of young children
for lead poisoning as part of Medicaid’s EPSDT services.
Presently the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formerly
HCFA) requires blood lead screening of 1- and 2-year-old children.
Lead poisoning prevention advocates fear that such a policy
change would make a bad situation even worse. The General
Accounting Office and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) estimate that Medicaid enrollees account
for an estimated 93% of severely lead-poisoned children and
60% of all children with elevated blood lead levels. The GAO’s
1998 report to Congress revealed the appalling failure of
state Medicaid programs to screen children for lead poisoning
- 81% noncompliance. Data reported by the states since that
time confirm the scale of the problem is unchanged. This controversy
drew front-page coverage by USA Today on April 17, and media
attention is growing, including coverage by Black Entertainment
Television (BET) Nightly News.
A number of Members of Congress and Senators are writing
HHS Secretary Thompson to protest this plan. The Alliance
and the National Health Law Program are urging local, state,
and national groups and individuals to sign on to a group
letter to Secretary Thompson demanding continued federal leadership
to assure adequate lead screening for Medicaid-enrolled children.
If you would like to sign on to this letter, please visit
the Alliance’s web site at www.afhh.org
and e-mail April Horton at the Alliance (ahorton@afhh.org)
by noon Eastern time on Friday, April 19. Please include your
name and organization and whether you are signing for your
organization or as an individual.
On April 17, Senators Reed (D-RI), Torricelli (D-NJ), Collins
(R-ME), and Specter (R-PA) wrote a “Dear Colleague”
letter asking other Senators to join them in urging the Appropriations
Committee to increase next year’s funding to $200 million
for Lead Hazard Control grants, double funding for Healthy
Homes grants, and support a primary prevention initiative.
The Alliance urges all who care about lead poisoning prevention
and healthy homes to contact your Senators ASAP to urge them
to “sign onto Senator Reed’s letter to the VA-HUD
Appropriations Subcommittee.” Since the deadline is
April 24, phone calls are fine – just ask to speak to
the “legislative assistant who handles housing.”
Government agency staff can always call their Senators as
individuals. For more information, refer Senate staff to Kara
Stein in Senator Reed’s office (202-224-4642) who is
leading this effort. Visit the Senate’s website at www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm
for information on how to contact your Senator – or
call the main switchboard (202-225-3121) and just ask to be
connected to your Senator’s office.
On March 21 Indiana Governor Frank O’Bannon signed
into law a comprehensive lead poisoning bill (HEA-1171) that
will dramatically increase lead-safe work practices, improve
reporting requirements for blood lead screening, and streamline
contractor licensing in the State. Beginning in July of this
year, home repair and painting contractors are prohibited
from sanding, scraping, burning or charring lead-based paint
on interior surfaces larger than 2 square feet and must conduct
environmental clean-up for exterior work on surfaces larger
than 20 square feet. Public health agencies are required to
share screening data among themselves and with housing agencies
governing HUD-subsidized properties. Starting on July 1, 2003,
private labs will join public labs in reporting blood lead
data to the state health department. Contractor licenses issued
after July 1 will be extended to last three years, instead
of one, and the State must have rules in place for licensing
clearance examiners by July 1, 2003.
Indiana now has a landlord-tenant law, which will apply to leases entered
into after July 1. The law (HEA-1013) requires that landlords comply with
all provisions of health and housing codes, ensure the safetiness and
cleanliness of all tenant-occupied units at rental, and safely maintain
all common areas. For more information on either law, contact Tom Neltner
at 317-283-5648 or neltner@ikecoalition.org.
Maine Governor Angus King recently signed into law an act
(LD 2038) to increase the level of blood lead screening in
the state. An Act To Amend The Maine Lead Poisoning Control
Act requires that all Maine children enrolled in the MaineCare
(Medicaid) program be screened for lead poisoning at ages
1 and 2. Children not covered by MaineCare must also be screened
at ages 1 and 2, unless they are found to be at low risk in
the judgment of their physician, who must use a risk assessment
tool.
Historically, Maine has maintained very low screening rates
(16% for children ages 1-6), while the average blood lead
level for Maine children is twice the national average. A
2000 study by the Maine Medical Assessment Foundation estimates
that 6,410 lead poisoned children in Maine go unidentified
and untreated annually.
For more information, contact Susan Thornfeldt at Maine Lead
Action Project on 207-871-7905 or leadsafe@gwi.net.
The Notices of Funding Availability (NOFA) for HUD’s
Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control and Healthy Homes grants programs
were published in the Federal Register on March 26 (pp. 14065-14133).
The application deadline is June 14, 2002. Application kits
are available by calling 800-483-8929 and from HUD’s
Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control Web site,
www.hud.gov/offices/lead/.
HUD has scheduled a “webcast” to provide further
information for Monday, April 22, 2002, see www.hud.gov/webcasts.
Approximately $80 million will be awarded for Lead-Based
Paint Hazard Control grants to States, local and Indian tribal
governments to evaluate and reduce lead-based paint hazards
in private housing rented or owned by low-income families.
This year’s requirements have been changed to increase
emphasis on grantee performance and authorize the use of persons
trained in lead-safe work practices to perform grant-funded
interim control work.
Approximately $5 million will be awarded by the Healthy Homes
Demonstration Program to support projects that address multiple
childhood diseases and injuries related to housing in a coordinated
fashion using effective hazard assessment and intervention
methods, and $3.5 million will be awarded for Healthy Homes
and Lead Technical Studies. Both healthy homes programs award
grants to not-for-profit and for-profit organizations as well
as governments.
The Alliance strongly encourages lead poisoning prevention
advocacy organizations and other community-based organizations
to partner with government agencies in applications for Lead
Hazard Control grants. The lead hazard control NOFA specifies
that applicants that partner, fund or subcontract with faith-based
and other community-based organizations will receive more
points in the rating process. Examples of activities that
can be funded include “training (including training
residents to screen houses through visual assessment and sampling),
outreach, community education, marketing, inspection (including
dust lead testing), and lead hazard control activities.”
The Community Environmental Health Resource Center (CEHRC)
seeks proposals to launch a demonstration project to advance
healthy housing. CEHRC plans to award up to $1,000,000 in
12-month grants to qualified local organizations to conduct
outreach, training, and community building through projects
to identify, control, and prevent housing-related health hazards.
Up to $100,000 will be awarded for each local project implementation
grant, with a maximum of $20,000 for each “scoping”
grant. Proposals are due on May 3, 2002 and grants will be
competitively awarded in June.
CEHRC is a project of the Alliance To End Childhood Lead
Poisoning, developed in collaboration with leaders of local
organizations from communities across the country at high-risk
for lead poisoning, asthma, and other health problems related
to substandard housing. CEHRC seeks to provide practical tools,
technical assistance, strategy advice, access to training,
and sub-grants to local nonprofit organizations in communities
at high-risk. This project is supported by funding from the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. For further
information, including a copy of the Request for Proposals,
please visit www.cehrc.org.
On March 26, one day after a new comprehensive lead poisoning
prevention bill supported by New York City advocacy groups
was introduced in the City Council, a state appellate court
reversed a lower court decision that had invalidated Local
Law 38 – a lead paint bill enacted in 1999 over advocates'
strong objections. Advocates opposed Local Law 38 for undercutting
tenants’ rights and failing to adequately protect children
from lead contaminated dust, among other things.
Local Law 38 was struck down in October 2000 by a state Supreme
Court Justice after the New York City Coalition to End Lead
Poisoning (NYCCELP) and other plaintiffs sued on the grounds
that the City Council failed to comply with procedural requirements
of the State Environmental Quality Review Act. While the issue
before the appellate court focused on the City Council's refusal
to conduct an environmental review of the adverse effects
of dust, advocates noted that the appellate court's hostile
opinion "mistakenly did not discuss – or even mention
– the dangers associated with lead dust that Local Law
38 would fail to regulate."
It is likely that plaintiffs will appeal the appellate court
decision if progress is not made quickly to hold hearings
on the new bill, known as "Intro. 101." In anticipation
of these hearings, New York City advocates intend in the next
few weeks to begin soliciting written comments from other
local and national advocates in support of changing Local
Law 38. For more information, contact Andrew Goldberg at New
York Public Interest Group, 212-349-6460, agoldberg@nypirg.org.
“Kids and Chemicals,” a special edition of NOW
will Bill Moyers, will air on Friday May 10 at 9:00 p.m. on
PBS television network. The special will investigate recent
research on the link between children’s health and the
environment. Scientists and health officials will discuss
children’s vulnerability to exposure, factors that contribute
to increased toxicity, and ways to protect children’s
health. Families, who are living with the effects of toxics,
will also be interviewed.
Six Indiana cities – South Bend, West Lafayette, Hammond,
East Chicago, Muncie, and Mishawaka – have extended
requirements for lead-safe work practices beyond HUD-subsidized
housing to include all work in child-occupied facilities.
All contractors bidding on city work for such facilities must
have completed a HUD-approved lead-safe work practices course.
Contact John Casey of Greentree Environmental Services on
jrcaseyone@aol.com
or 877-476-8733 for further information.
The Maine Housing Authority is sponsoring 17 training sessions
in April and May to train Maine contractors in lead-safe work
practices to ensure that contractors are complying with the
HUD regulations governing federally-subsidized housing units.
Anyone interested in registering for the training sessions,
should call 207-624-5720 or e-mail rtrefethen@mainehousing.org.
On March 19, 2002, the U.S. Circuit Court for the District
of Columbia heard a challenge by the National Multi Housing
Council (NMHC) and others to EPA’s Section 403 standards,
which define unsafe levels of lead in residential paint, dust
and bare soil. NMHC argued that EPA has no authority to regulate
lead-contaminated household dust and soil unless the contamination
is caused by lead-based paint. At the hearing, NMHC conceded
that lead is harmful regardless of the source, and that it
is not always possible to determine the source of dust or
soil contamination. For additional information, please contact
Anne Ziebarth at the Alliance at aziebarth@afhh.org.
A Washington, D.C. landlord – charged with six felonies
for fraudulently failing to notify tenants of the presence
of lead-based paint – was recently sentenced to two
years in prison and fined $50,000. David D. Nguyen, who owned
at least 15 low-income properties in the District and Maryland,
is the first landlord to be criminally prosecuted for violating
the lead hazard disclosure rule. At least eight children who
resided in Nguyen’s properties were lead poisoned.
The National Paint and Coatings Association (NPCA) has announced plans
to help paint retailers better understand lead hazards and increase the
availability of resources for lead-safe painting projects. NPCA’s
plans are prompted by the results of a survey conducted by Improving Kids
Environment (IKE) in Indianapolis that found 71% of store clerks in 41
local retail paint stores advised a customer to sand the paint off the
door to a child’s nursery, despite being told that the home was
built prior to 1950. The paint stores surveyed serve residents at high-risk
for lead exposure. Store clerks also offered other bad advice, including
suggesting that the consumer inspect the paint chips to determine the
dust color or that she only sand the top coat of the painted surface.
For more information on the survey, visit www.ikecoalition.org
or contact Tom Neltner at IKE—neltner@ikecoalition.org.
The National Center for Healthy Housing and the Alliance
recently released an update to our 1999 report Another
Link in the Chain: State Policies and Practices for Case Management
and Environmental Investigation of Lead Poisoned Children.
The report includes 2000 data on all 50 states plus DC and
19 local jurisdictions and identifies a number of persistent
problems including weak surveillance, poor resource management,
inadequate follow-up care and insufficient dust testing. Notable
findings included a 44% drop in the number of cases identified
nationwide at or above 20mg/dL, with six states reporting
increases in the 150 to 300% range. Many
state programs reported making changes since the earlier report.
For example, 37 states have made lead dust testing an integral
part of their programs. Another Link in the Chain Update is
available on-line in PDF format at www.centerforhealthyhousing.org
or in hard copy for $15 from the National Center or the Alliance,
www.afhh.org.
The National Lead-Safe Housing and Indoor Environmental Health
Conference and Exposition will be held in Washington, DC,
from June 2 to 5. An international conference on lead poisoning,
"Global Dimensions of Lead", will precede this national
conference on June 1-3. The conference, organized by the National
Lead Assessment and Abatement Council and co-sponsored by
a host of national advocacy organizations, is one of the few
opportunities each year for advocates to get together to learn
about new developments, network and discuss strategies. Some
partial registration tuitions are available to attendees from
community-based, nonprofit, non-governmental organizations.
For more information about tuition eligibility call Kim Levi
at 800-590-6522. For more information about the conference,
see www.leadconferences.com.
In conjunction with the National Lead-Safe Housing and Indoor
Environmental Health Conference and Exposition, the Alliance
is hosting a special breakfast session for advocates and community
leaders. Please join us to discuss and share effective advocacy
and community organizing strategies for advancing lead poisoning
prevention and healthy housing. The breakfast will be on Tuesday,
June 4 from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. We'll send out a reminder (and
the location for the room within the conference hotel) in
mid-May.
The National Center for Healthy Housing seeks an Executive
Director to replace Nick Farr, who is retiring this year.
The Executive Director will be responsible for refining, communicating
and implementing the Center’s mission as it expands
beyond lead safety into control of residential environmental
health hazards, including: fundraising; building and expanding
cooperative relationships and partnerships; and identification,
management, and hiring of staff. For a full job description,
visit www.centerforhealthyhousing.org.
To apply, please send a cover letter and resume by May 24
to Nick Farr at 10227 Wincopin Circle, Suite 205, Columbia,
MD 21044.
**For information on the Alliance’s international programs
and worldwide prevention activities, please visit our Global
Lead Network website at www.globalleadnet.org**
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