For Immediate Release  Contact:  Karen Hinton, 703-798-3109

     National Health & Housing Groups Urge EPA to Issue Long Overdue Regulation to Protect Children

From Lead Poisoning

Call on EPA to Ensure Safe Renovations

Washington, DC – National health and housing advocacy organizations have urged the Environmental Protection Agency to issue immediately a regulation that has been unnecessarily delayed for nearly 11 years. The regulation, a requirement of a 1992 federal law, would protect children from lead poisoning during home renovation and remodeling. These requirements have been in place since 2001 for federally-assisted housing, yet other housing remains at risk. The groups also called on EPA to strengthen the requirements it issued in proposed form more than a year ago.

"Enough is enough. The industry has had a decade and a half to prepare for lead-safe renovation practices. Simply put, it is wrong for (EPA) to allow renovation, remodeling, and painting work to expose 1.1 million children to the risk of lead poisoning each year when proven methods of protection are available," stated a letter to the EPA from the health and housing groups.

The names of the organizations signing the letter are Alliance for Healthy Homes, American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the American Public Health Association, ARC of the United States, the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, the Lead and Environmental Hazards Association, the Learning Disabilities Association of America, the National Center for Healthy Housing, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the National Resources Defense Council, OMB Watch, United Cerebral Palsy, and the United Methodist Church Board of Church and Society.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 310,000 young children in the U.S. have elevated levels of lead in their blood. Lead harms children's nervous systems and is associated with reduced IQ, behavioral problems, and learning disabilities. In large doses, it can cause coma, convulsions and death. Lead exposure in pregnant women can harm fetal development and cause miscarriages.

"EPA has been dragging its feet for far too long. Every year they wait, the 1.1 million children that would be protected by the rule are left vulnerable to the irreversible effects of lead and 4 million renovations in older homes go unchecked," said Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing.

"Renovation and remodeling are common activities that have been proven to result in lead poisoning in children. EPA officials have taken an important step by proposing a new regulation covering these activities; however, they are not going far enough. They need to get it right the first time," said Robert Zdenek, executive director of the Alliance for Healthy Homes.

(Attached is a narrative about the Kerley family in Durham, NC and the Rubin family in Portland, OR. Children in both families suffered from lead paint poisoning as a result of home renovations undertaken by contractors.)

The EPA regulation proposes that contractors must be trained in the use of lead-safe work practices, renovators and firms be certified, providers of renovation training be accredited, and renovators follow protective work practice standards. These work practices include posting warning signs, restricting occupants from work areas, arranging work areas to prevent dust and debris from spreading, conducting a thorough cleanup, and verifying that cleanup was effective.

The rules would apply to all persons who do renovation for compensation, including renovation contractors, maintenance workers in multi-family housing, painters and other specialty trades. The new requirements would apply to most renovation, repair or painting activities where more than two square feet of lead-based paint is disturbed.

 The housing and health groups also urged EPA to take the following steps to strengthen the proposed regulation:

• Prohibit the use of dangerous methods of disturbing lead-based paint, such as uncontrolled power sanding and sandblasting that generate significant and dangerous amounts of lead dust.

• Require an independent dust clearance test following renovations to ensure invisible lead dust is not left behind; the proposed rule relies on a visual test to verify that dust lead levels after cleanup are below EPA standards, yet research shows that visual tests alone can not detect lead dust hazards;

• Properly train workers so that they know how to protect occupants and their own families; the proposed rule calls for certified renovators to attend qualified training programs while most laborers would merely receive an hour of instruction from a supervisor; and

• Ensure means for effective enforcement; the proposed rule neither provides families with clear information nor fortifies the state agencies that will oversee the program with meaningful enforcement authority such as private rights of action, automated advance notification, or authorization to reinvest in the program any fines that are collected. 

Morley said EPA has conducted a series of unnecessary studies to prove what is already known. "Previous studies clearly demonstrate that the regulation will not protect children in its current form. Worse, as written, the regulation may give families a false sense of security about the safety of home renovations. Halting dangerous work practices and requiring a final lead dust test in homes after renovation are simply the best ways to ensure that the regulation will actually fulfill its intended mandate," said Morley.

Zdenek added, "Under the proposed rule, a laborer will not have effective training" said Zdenek. "Lower paid workers will not be equipped to protect occupants, neighbors, passers-by, themselves, and their families. Renovation firms and public health are both better served by a training requirement that equips all crew members with full knowledge from an effective training experience under the direction of a qualified trainer." 

The groups also urged EPA to bring child-occupied facilities under the regulation. The proposed rule exempts child-occupied facilities and commercial and public buildings, but targets initially housing built before 1960 and, ultimately, all housing built before 1978.

Lead poisoning is a potential hazard in any home built before 1978, the year when lead paint was banned. Nationwide, there are 38 million homes with lead-based paint. Renovating older homes can generate significant lead dust hazards by disturbing lead paint. Children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning, because their developing bodies absorb lead more readily than adults' and they are more likely to put their hands in their mouths after they have touched floors, windowsills, or objects where lead settles after renovation work. Children are also acutely vulnerable to lead's harmful effects because it disrupts crucial development processes.

The CDC defines an elevated blood lead level (EBL) as 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood or higher, but CDC also states that no safe level has been established. A lead level as low as two micrograms per deciliter has been shown to harm children's school performance. Data collected by state health workers in Maine from 2001-2003 showed that 62% of children who had lead-blood levels of 20 micrograms per deciliter or higher lived in homes with recent or ongoing renovations.

 The likelihood a home contains lead-based paint varies with the home's age. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that just 24% of housing built between 1960 and 1977 contains lead-based paint; however the number jumps to 69% for homes built between 1940 and 1959 and 87% of housing built before 1940. HUD researchers also found that housing in the northeast and the midwest had about twice the prevalence of lead-paint hazards compared with housing in the south and west

About the National Center for Healthy Housing
National Center for Healthy Housing is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation based in Columbia, Maryland, dedicated to developing and promoting practical methods to protect children from residential environmental hazards while preserving the supply of affordable housing. NCHH has over a decade of experience conducting applied research, program evaluation, technical assistance, training, outreach, and case management focused on reducing the health consequences of indoor exposures. NCHH staff includes housing, health, and environmental professionals with expertise in biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, public health, housing policy, and industrial hygiene.

About the Alliance for Healthy Homes
The Alliance for Healthy Homes is the national, nonprofit public interest organization advocating for practical, affordable policy solutions and working to build community capacity to prevent housing-related hazards from harming the health of children, their families, and other residents. The Alliance stresses the importance of fixing housing-related health hazards before they cause harm; housing that is decent, environmentally safe, and affordable for all; and holistic strategies that efficiently address multiple hazards and their underlying causes. Alliance works closely with policy makers, community-based organizations, housing providers, government agencies, and other stakeholders. The Alliance provides strategic and technical support to community-based organizations and state and local agencies across the nation. 

For more information: www.afhh.org and www.centerforhealthyhousing.org

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