EPA Remodeling
and Renovation Rule Comment Deadline is May 25
The public comment period for the proposed EPA lead-safe
remodeling, renovation, and painting rule ends May 25. All healthy homes and
lead poisoning prevention advocates who have not yet submitted comments to the
docket are urged to do so as soon as possible. To submit comments, visit www.regulations.gov,
select “Environmental Protection Agency” as the agency in the drop
down, and type the word “renovation” into the keyword field. Hit
return, and then select the left-most link "Docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2005-0049.”
Changes to the rule that advocates should recommend include:
(1) The use of uncontrolled power sanding, open flame burning, methylene chloride
chemicals, and other dangerous methods to disturb painted surfaces must be prohibited;
(2) All renovation workers and painters must receive real training; (3) Post-work
lead dust clearance testing must be required after high-risk renovation work;
(4) Enforcement must be adequately funded and authorized at all levels of government;
(5) There must be no exemptions from requirements, and especially not in homes
where a child has been poisoned and homes where no child resides on the day
of the renovation work; and (6) Property owners and occupants must be provided
with clear and health-protective information. For more information about the
rule, including comments and concerns about the rule as raised by several working
groups, see www.afhh.org/aa/aa_hh_policy_national_policy_eparandr.htm.
Organizations
Urge HUD to Move Healthy Homes Discussion Beyond Education and into Practice
The Alliance for Healthy Homes, the American Public Health
Association, and the National Low Income Housing Coalition on April 21 urged
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alfonso Jackson
to move discussion and action on healthy homes beyond parent and occupant education
and into effective practice by the department, other federal agencies, and rental
property owners.
The organizations’ letter to Secretary Jackson was
sent in response to HUD’s “Healthy Homes for Healthy Kids”
media campaign. In announcing the campaign, Jackson described it as an education
effort, saying, “If we can educate young mothers before their child ends
up in an emergency room, then we’ve done our job.” The organizations
acknowledged and supported the idea of parent and occupant education as one
key component of a federal healthy homes strategy, but stressed that it was
just that—one part of what should be a multifaceted campaign to ensure
that every American has the opportunity to live in a healthy home.
In addition to an education and media campaign, the organizations
stressed the need for the following actions:
ensuring compliance with housing quality standards,
minimum property standards, and HUD’s lead-safe housing regulation in
millions of homes for which the Department provides some type of housing assistance;
aggressively identifying, pursuing, and prosecuting
violations of the federal lead disclosure rule in real estate transactions;
promoting the use of integrated pest management (IPM) in federally assisted
housing to reduce asthma and other illnesses;
ensuring that federally-assisted housing does not expose
residents to cancer risks from radon;
providing meaningful leadership in incorporating health-based
standards into housing and building codes;
expanding the reach of the Housing Choice Voucher program
to meet the needs of the millions of households who are paying more than 50
percent of their income for housing and living in properties with severe physical
problems;
ensuring that public housing authorities have sufficient
operating and capital improvement budgets;
fully funding CDBG and HOME so that local housing agencies
can rehabilitate more substandard homes, thereby
reducing blight and expanding the housing options for
low-income families; and
reversing the trend of funding decreases for its Office
of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control to enable the nation to meet the
2010 goal of eliminating childhood lead poisoning from lead paint hazards,
a goal adopted by both of the previous administrations with broad bipartisan
support.
Boston
Lawyer-Doctor Child Health Collaboration to Go National
A program formerly known as The Boston Family Advocacy
Program, a citywide initiative headquartered at Boston Medical Center (BMC),
was innovative when founded because it partnered doctors with attorneys to help
low-income children live healthier lives. While the program’s efforts
were wide ranging, the doctors and lawyers addressed a number of housing-related
health issues, including ensuring proper levels of heat in the winter, eliminating
rodent and cockroach infestations that can cause asthma attacks and spread infection
disease, and convincing landlords to fix water leaks that can cause mold growth
that threatens the health of those with respiratory problems and weakened immune
systems. Over the past few years, similar projects were started in several other
cities. The program had proven so effective that BMC is launching an effort
to bring the partnership initiative to every state in the nation.
A group of funders, including the W.K. Kellogg and Robert
Wood Johnson Foundations, recently provided $2.7 million for the program’s
expansion. The program has been renamed the Medical-Legal Partnership for Children,
and its founder, Dr. Barry Zuckerman, “It’s an opportunity...to
pick up legal programs before they reach their natural unfortunate outcome.”
The program will encourage doctors to identify barriers to children’s
health that the law can eliminate, including indoor environmental health hazards
and a lack of access to affordable housing. The partnership will also match
law firms and legal aid groups with health care centers across the country to
provide poor families with free legal representation as they fight to improve
their children’s health.
Newport,
Rhode Island, Housing Authority Adopts Healthy Homes Resolution
The Newport, Rhode Island, Housing Authority in April adopted
a healthy homes resolution and created an innovative healthy homes, healthy
residents initiative.
Core features of the project include the housing authority
board’s healthy homes resolution; a committee whose charge is to integrate
social services, housing maintenance, and local insurers to ensure healthy housing
for all residents; a survey of residents on asthma, access to health care, and
environmental triggers of asthma symptoms; changes in housing practices, including
essential maintenance and cleaning and repairs at unit turnover; the creation
of healthy homes response teams to address environmental triggers of respiratory
problems, including rodent and cockroach infestations; and healthy homes training
for all housing authority staff and resident leaders.
Environmental
Health Perspectives Focuses on Asthma
The April 2006 edition of Environmental Health Perspectives
contains a four-article section on the possible environmental causes of asthma,
an examination of the most potent environmental asthma triggers, and an exploration
of the most effective environmental interventions to reduce asthma attacks.
The grouping of articles flowed from a workshop sponsored
by EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in
2004. The goals of the workshop included examining what is already known about
how environmental exposures can exacerbate asthma symptoms, documenting the
most effective environmental asthma interventions, and identifying critical
research areas.
The collection of articles on environmental influences
on asthma can be found by visiting www.ehponline.org/docs/2006/114-4/toc.html
and scrolling down to the bottom right-hand corner of the page.
Environmental
Tobacco Smoke Contains Dangerous Levels of Pesticides
Colorado researchers in April added one more reason to
eliminate environmental tobacco smoke in the home—it contains dangerous
levels of three highly toxic pesticides commonly used on tobacco crops.
In a study published in the April 15 online edition of
Analytical Chemistry, the scientists discovered that flumetralin, pendimenthalin,
and trifluralin are commonly found in a wide sampling of smoke from commercially
available cigarettes. The pesticides are all considered toxic to the human endocrine
system, and health effects could include adverse developmental impacts and reproductive
problems. Two of the three pesticides are also considered to be possible human
carcinogens.
ASTHO
Hurricane Reports Summary and Compilation Now Online, Other Recovery Resources
Appear on the Web
The Association of State and Territorial Health Officers
(ASTHO) has summarized and compiled the federal government’s Hurricane
Katrina reports, emphasizing the public health implications. Reports include
those of the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Government Accountability
Office. To read ASTHO’s summary, visit www.astho.org/newsletter/newsletters/9/display.php?u=Jmk9OSZwPTI1NiZzPTIwMjg%3d.
Other recovery resources have also been posted to the web,
including the Katrina Research Group at http://kerrn.org
and Louisiana Rebuilds at www.louisianarebuilds.org.
National
Center for Healthy Housing, Enterprise Community Partners, and NeighborWorks®
America Release Instructional Guide on the Cleanup for Flooded Homes
Three national organizations—the National Center
for Healthy Housing, Enterprise Community Partners, and NeighborWorks® America—teamed
up with NeighborWorks® member organization Neighborhood Housing Services
of New Orleans to conduct a demonstration project in flood damaged homes in
New Orleans. The team used this experience to develop a set of proper methods
for cleaning up mold in homes flooded by the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. Columbia
University and Tulane University provided expertise for the demonstration project.
Funding was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The demonstration yielded two informational products for
those rebuilding in the Gulf coast region. The first is an illustrated, step-by-step
instructional guide for do-it-yourselfers, volunteers, and contractors, entitled
Creating a Healthy Home: A Field Guide for Clean-Up of Flooded Homes.
The guide can be downloaded from www.centerforhealthyhousing.org.
Through May 26, you can order free copies by calling 585-327-5530.
The project team also joined with the Little Sisters of
the Assumption and Microecologies, Inc. to create a DVD that provides further
detail about cleaning up flooded homes. Bulk quantities of the DVD are available
to those involved in Gulf Coast recovery efforts by calling the National Center
for Healthy Housing at 1-877-312-3046.
The demonstration project found that in homes that experienced
up to six feet of standing water for nearly a month and had mold growth to the
ceiling, the clean up methods reduced the airborne mold to low levels. Once
the mold is treated in this way, the flooded areas of a home can be safely renovated.
In most scenarios in mild-to-moderately damaged structures, mold-infested debris
and building materials can be removed and the structure decontaminated and made
safe for rebuilding for about $3 to $4 a square foot. Homes with three feet
of flooding will cost between $32,000 and $47,000 to fully repair after decontamination;
homes with six feet of flooding will cost between $78,000 and $120,000 to fully
repair after decontamination, according to NCHH estimates.
Airborne mold levels in the three demonstration homes were
as high as 140,000 colony-forming units per cubic meter (CFU/m3) before work
began. Mold levels during the flood cleanup work increased to well over one
million CFU/m3. After the work was complete—room removing all of the moldy
materials (including wall board, ceiling tiles and insulation) to washing or
misting open wall cavities with a borate solution—mold levels in the homes
were generally below 2,000 CFU/m3, lower than outdoor levels.
Mold exposure may cause allergic reactions, such as asthma
attacks, sneezing, runny nose, red eyes, and skin rash. Even dead mold spores
pose a risk, especially for children and adults with respiratory problems. The
results demonstrate that people with asthma and weakened immune systems should
avoid entering before the homes are cleaned up and people who do enter the homes
must wear proper equipment.
National
Center for Healthy Housing Publishes Green and Healthy Housing Report
The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) recently
released a report that compares major national green building and indoor air
quality guidelines with its own set of recommended healthy housing criteria
to assess the extent to which these programs protect residents from health and
safety hazards. The analysis examined guidelines produced by both the public
and private sectors, including: the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Homes,
the National Association of Home Builders' NAHB Green Home Building Guidelines,
and Enterprise Community Partner's Green Communities Criteria. NCHH also included
in the analysis the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Energy Star
with Indoor Air Package and the American Lung Association's Health House Builder
Guidelines, which are programs aimed primarily at improving the quality of the
indoor environment.
The results showed that there is significant variation
in the degree to which national green guidelines consider occupant health. For
example, although most programs had elements related to reducing moisture and
improving ventilation, injury prevention was omitted from all of the guidelines,
and protection from contaminants such as lead and pesticides were not uniformly
covered. Only one program, Green Communities, focused on affordable existing
housing, an important consideration since low-income families are disproportionately
impacted by housing-related health problems.
Overall, the analysis suggests that green building programs
offer a significant opportunity to achieve public health benefits and have the
potential to move the housing market toward healthier building. This report
suggests ways to strengthen the occupant health criteria for green building
programs so that they may deliver greater benefits to those who are building
and rehabilitating homes, and to the families who reside in them.
Mold in
Your Home DVD Now Available from Northwest Clean Air Agency
The Northwest Clean Air Agency, a regional air quality
agency created by the State of Washington Legislature four decades ago, has
released a new video titled Mold in Your Home: Causes, Prevention, and Clean-up.
The 12-minute program details why mold grows, where it grows indoors, provides
tips on how to prevent mold contamination, and describes how to safely clean
it up. The video’s pointers are good for all regions in the country except
the hot and humid Southeast.
EPA Region 9 (Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii, and
the Pacific Islands) is making available five grants of between $20,000 and
$35,000 for projects in those states that are aligned with EPA’s strategic
objective to increase the number of people breathing healthier indoor air as
well as its indoor air pollutant priority air objectives and the agency’s
annual measures and long-term measures. Projects can be of varying types, including
demonstration, training, outreach, and education, and can be carried out by
nonprofit organizations, states, tribal governments, and public and private
colleges and universities. The deadline for application is June 2. The full
grant announcement is available at www.epa.gov/region09/funding/indoor-pollutants-2006.pdf.
HUD’s FY 2006 SuperNOFA, including grant programs
in healthy homes and lead hazard control, is now open for applications. The
SuperNOFA includes $14.6 million in Operation LEAP funds, $84.9 million for
lead hazard control grants, $59.6 million for lead demonstration grants, $4.85
million for lead and healthy homes technical studies, $2 million for lead outreach
grants, and $4.37 million for healthy homes demonstration grants. All healthy
homes and lead hazard control grant applications are due in early June. Information
on applying for these and other HUD FY06 grants can be found at www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm#grants.
Upcoming Conferences
The 2006 Affordable Comfort Home Performance Conference
will be held May 22-26 in Austin, TX. The conference will cover a variety of
important topics related to healthy homes and indoor environmental health, including
ventilation, proper moisture control, and energy efficiency. For more information,
visit www.affordablecomfort.org/events.php?EventID=15.
The National Conference on Asthma and Lead Poisoning will
be held May 22 in Saginaw, MI (this reflects a scheduling change, from a multi-day
conference to a one-day conference). The conference will feature a variety of
topics, including residential asthma triggers, best practices to minimize housing-related
risk factors for asthma and lead poisoning, low-literacy community-based intervention
methods, bilingual intervention programs, healthy homes initiatives, and more.
The conference is designed for healthy homes advocates, public health officials,
academics, federal and state legislative staff, and representatives from funders
with an interest in lead poisoning and asthma. For more information, visit www.fni.org/leadandasthma.asp.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
is hosting a state lead meeting on June 12. Titled “Childhood Lead Poisoning:
Lead Exposure: Questions Answered,” the meeting will feature keynote speaker
Mary Jean Brown, Chief of CDC’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch. For
more information, contact Nisha Jani at janini@umdnj.edu
or 973-972-7398.
The Ohio Department of Health is sponsoring its 13th Ohio
Lead Poisoning Prevention Conference June 20-22 in Columbus. The featured speakers
and exhibitors will be from local, state, and national levels. The conference
goal is to educate healthcare and environmental professionals, parents, and
community leaders about the current medical, environmental, and programmatic
issues of childhood lead poisoning prevention in Ohio. Continuing education
units may be offered for nurses, sanitarians, and social workers. For more information,
E-mail bcfhs@odh.ohio.gov
or call Barbara Kochli Nixon at 937-285-6261.
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