Ariel Wallace, 9, of Baltimore was 3 years old when the lead paint in her house almost killed her.
“Going through this experience, it was a nightmare for me,” said Rosalee Goodall, Ariel?s grandmother.
“Ariel started losing weight tremendously. She was walking and falling over. Luckily, we caught it early enough. Otherwise, Ariel would be brain dead,” she said.
Stories like Ariel?s have motivated Tom Perez, one of three Democratic candidates for attorney general, to pledge legal action against the companies that produce lead paint if he is elected this November.
Standing on Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore on Thursday, home of 15 houses with documented lead paint violations, Perez promised to sue companies that produce lead paint if they did not quickly reform their policies.
“My first day in office, I will put the lead paint companies on notice,” said Perez, a member of the Montgomery County Council.
“It is time for attorneys general, just as they did in tobacco, to take the lead on the issue of lead paint across this country.”
Perez called lead paint the “No. 1 environmental issue” in Baltimore City as well as a “civil rights issue.”
He said he would try to negotiate change with the companies first, but if that failed, would push legal action.
“There are so many people who are disproportionately African-American, disproportionately Latino, who have been victimized by lead paint,” Perez said.
Perez was joined by Maryland ACORN board?s chairwoman the Rev. Gloria Swieringa, who said companies who produce lead paint “have continued to peddle poison to our children and our families.”
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, wants lead paint companies to pay for removing all lead paint from older housing to prevent lead poisoning, which has been linked to damaging the brain development of children ages 1 to 6.
ACORN alleges that companies have profited from lead paint sales in the past despite warnings from scientists, and should pay to remove the hazard now.
Recently, the Baltimore City Council failed to pass a resolution calling for the city solicitor to sue major paint manufacturers.
“Our legislative leaders made a terrible decision when they decided not to hold them accountable,” Swieringa said.
Alan Christian, a spokesman for former Baltimore City State?s Attorney Stuart Simms? Attorney General campaign, said Simms “will not address issues according the timetable of other candidates.”
Onthe same day as Perez pledged to go after lead paint companies, Attorney General candidate Doug Gansler, the Montgomery County State?s Attorney, announced he had received the endorsements of more than 30 Montgomery County elected officials.
The Gansler campaign did not respond to a request for comment on lead paint.
Examiner Staff Writer Stephen Janis contributed to this report.
