Rental and home-ownership law, as well as testing procedures for lead in homes, may need to be changed if Maryland is to meet the goal of raising lead-free children by 2010.
Maryland legislation is not burdensome, said Brian Devlin, rental manager for the St. Ambrose affordable housing program in Baltimore City andBaltimore County.
“Since the mid-1990s, you?ve had to register your rental properties with the Maryland Department of the Environment,” Devlin said. “You?ve had to go through a risk-reduction before people can move into your house.”
Still, he said, the law is easy to comply with from an owner?s perspective. Some areas may need to be strengthened, like requiring a chemical test rather than a visual inspection of cleaned up homes.
Although she cites a 97 percent success rate statewide, Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning Director Ruth Ann Norton said Maryland law does little to compel private homeowners to clean up or test their properties. That and other loopholes have made the final 3 percent a big challenge.
Last year, 1,331 Maryland children were diagnosed with dangerous levels of lead in their blood; most came into contact with deteriorating lead-laced paint, dust and building materials in their homes. While less than 3 percent of Maryland children have been poisoned by lead in and around their homes, at least two out of three children have never been tested.
Nearly one-fourth of the housing units in the United States have significant levels of lead present in dust, soil or paint, according to the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
But there is something you can do to protect your children.
Researchers at the Saint Louis University School of Public Health report in the January issue of Environmental Science & Technology that all-purpose floor and counter detergents are as effective as specialized lead-treating solvents at removing lead-bearing dust from wood, wallpaper and vinyl flooring.
Devlin said many of St. Ambrose?s properties have been completely gutted ? except where historic preservation standards demand windows be preserved. New drywall and windows and testing the water supply should remove or identify most sources of possible poisoning.
This is the second in a series commemorating National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week.
