Lead Poisoning Effects and Laws

My good friend and colleague, Anne Lowe, has done considerable research on the issue of lead poisoning and environmental justice. Her video on lead poisoning can be accessed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIa_vUJ4Ovs. An excerpt from her research follows.

Lead Poisoning: A Quiet Menace

 

Childhood lead poisoning is an epidemic with serious lifelong consequences for its victims. Once it strikes, the damage is done. Nearly 700,000 children in the United States have toxic levels of lead in their blood and close to five million additional children have levels of blood lead that are associated with impaired neurological and intellectual functioning. And the problem is further complicated by the medical, social, economic, and political problems faced by many of lead poisoned children and their families. But it is important to remember that lead poisoning IS preventable.

 

Every family can take action to avoid lead poisoning within its own household. However, there are also ways to address the broader problem of lead poisoning in Indiana’s children—and it is a significant problem, particularly for families living in Indianapolis’s urban center.

 

Indiana Lead Poisoning Prevention Measures Already In Place

 

In 2008, the Indiana legislature passed  the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act. The purpose of the law is to protect Indiana children from the effects of lead poisoning by regulating leads found in toys and other consumer products, prohibiting the sale of products that contain high levels of lead, requiring that the Indiana State Department of Health develop a mandatory training program  for contractors and remodelers working in houses constructed before 1978, requiring that Indiana paint provide lead paint testing kits, and creating a committee to consider long-term solutions.

 

The Indiana Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act is a good start, but it doesn’t fully address the problem. It has demonstrated some success in preventing lead poisoning by restricting lead in consumer products, but it has done little to remove the lead already in the environment, particularly in residences and soil. There are still thousands of homes containing lead in Indianapolis and property owners are under no obligation to abate the lead problem, even when their tenants’ safety is at risk. Furthermore, litigation over lead poisoning usually comes only after the child has already been injured.

 

 

Following other states’ examples

 

Several other states have implemented laws aimed at a more rigorous and preventative attack on the problem of lead poisoning in children. For example, under Connecticut law, landlords and property owners are liable for interior and exterior lead abatement in homes where there are toxic levels of lead and where children under the age of six live.

 

The law imposes even stricter requirements if the child has been diagnosed with an elevated blood level. If a child under six tests for a certain level of lead in his or her blood, the law requires that health departments and code enforcement officials conduct inspections of the child’s residence. If lead is found, the local enforcement agency must issue an order for the property owner to abate the lead, both inside the house and around the exterior.  Inspections may also be triggered by a complaint by a tenant or by unusual unit turnover.

 

Massachusetts has also enacted an innovative lead poisoning law intended to prevent childhood exposure to lead. The law is multi-faceted, aimed at preventing lead poisoning from several different angles. It strictly regulates lead levels in soil and water and provides for serious sanctions for contractors and remodelers who fail to comply with abatement requirements. It requires the removal or covering of lead paint hazards in homes built before 1978 where any children under six live. It provides for strict liability and treble damages for any property owner who fails to comply with de-leading requirements. It creates a grant and loan program that helps lower-income tenants and landlords with the financial burdens associated with abatement. It provides a tax credit to property owners and tenants who abate their property. It forbids a landlord from refusing to renew a lease to a tenant because of the presence of children in the tenant’s family.

 

The Massachusetts and Connecticut laws move a step further than Indiana’s current law in preventing instances of lead poisoning in children and, thus, serve as a great model for Indiana.

 

What you can do

 

Contact your district representative. Inform them of the risks and consequences of lead poisoning in children and of the shortcomings of the current law. Point to the Massachusetts and Connecticut laws and ask for their help in implementing the same preventative measures in Indiana.

 

Get members of your community involved. The first state lead laws were the result of grassroots activism by members of communities affected by lead poisoning, pediatricians, public health workers, and community organizations. Make sure members of your community are aware of the consequences of lead poisoning and of the various ways to fight it, both at home and in the legislature.

 

Look up your representative here: http://district.iga.in.gov/DistrictLookup/