EPA Reverses Key Lead Abatement Rule: Children at Risk

[BrklynLiberal]

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BUSHGREENWATCH
Tracking the Bush Administration's Environmental Misdeeds
http://www.bushgreenwatch.org
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March 22, 2005

EPA REVERSES KEY LEAD ABATEMENT RULE: CHILDREN AT RISK

"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.

###

SOURCES:
<1> PEER press release, Mar. 14, 2005,
http://ga3.org/ct/J7zACmM1BmxH/.
<2> Letter to Journalists. (Journalists may contact
BushGreenwatch.org for a copy of the letter.)

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[underpants]

1. The Bush administration summed up in one paragraph

An EPA spokesperson said the decision to switch to a voluntary
approach was not made by Administrator Johnson, but would not
say who did.

[tom_paine]

2. Lead makes people stupefied and dulled, therefore the Busheviks

are all in favor...

Imperial EPA should not be compared with Free America's EPA.

Imperial EPA has only one purpose, protect the Bushevik Corparations and other Imperial Cronies.

The byproducts of that are an agency which lies, witholds information, and is run by people who are ideologically 100% against environental regulation (except for the bullshit lip service deceiving the Imperial Subjects of Amerika requires).

[bloom]

3. I was reading recently that paint before 1992 had mercury in it.

Would have similar problems as the lead situation.