"There is more than a little irony here. The EPA--the same agency that took lead out of gasoline--is now weakening any attempt to eliminate the most important remaining source of lead poisoning: household paint and dust."
So spoke Dr. Herbert L. Needleman, one of the nation's premiere experts on the impact of lead poisoning on children. Dr. Needleman spoke with BushGreenwatch upon learning that the Environmental Protection Agency has quietly removed the requirement that only certified contractors using workers trained in lead-safe practices may do remodeling or renovation in buildings constructed before 1978.
According to internal briefings obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), President Bush's new EPA Administrator, Stephen Johnson, has scrapped that requirement in favor of a voluntary approach.[1] Dr. Needleman described the voluntary approach as "a strategy that has never worked in lead abatement."
An EPA spokesperson said the decision to switch to a voluntary approach was not made by Administrator Johnson, but would not say who did.
Citing EPA's removal of lead from gasoline as "the most important public health achievement of the past 30 years," Dr. Needleman said the one important remaining source is lead in the paint and dust of older housing. EPA estimates that some 1.4 million children under age 7—the prime developmental years--live in households where they are at risk of lead exposure.
Addressing the damage lead poisoning causes to children's brain development, Dr. Needleman, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and other physicians and lead investigators said that "as pediatricians who have seen the tragic consequences of lead poisoning close up, we are outraged at the quiet abandonment of a program that could eliminate this avoidable epidemic." [2]
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 434,000 U.S. children under the age of 5 currently have blood-lead levels linked with serious developmental health consequences. Most of them live in the inner cities.
"The Bush Administration has walked away from the national goal of eliminating childhood lead poisoning by 2010," said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. Ruch said PEER is working to organize a coalition to press for implementation of the "long-stalled regulations," and, if neccessary, take the issue to court.
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SOURCES:
[1] PEER press release, Mar. 14, 2005.
[2] Letter to Journalists. (Journalists may contact BushGreenwatch.org for a copy of the letter.)
