ENVIRO-HEALTH NEWS

For immediate release, Monday, July 11, 2005
For more information, contact: Amanda Sears (207)772-2181 or (207)939-7333 cell

New Maine Law Requires Paint Manufacturers to Pay $2.5 Million to Fund Lead Poisoning Prevention Programs

Every year exposure to lead places 20,000 Maine children at risk of learning disabilities and 40,000 adult workers at risk of lead poisoning. LD 1034 An Act to Prevent Lead Poisoning of Children and Adults, a bill to fund educational outreach to protect children and workers from lead poisoning received overwhelming bipartisan support from the Maine Legislature this session. This new law will raise $2.5 million from the paint industry over the next five years to fund lead poisoning prevention programs.

"Lead poisoning has plagued Maine families for decades. It is about time that manufacturers who imported this problem into Maine contribute to efforts to prevent more kids and workers from being poisoned," said Mike Belliveau, Executive Director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, a Maine based public health organization.

Passage of LD 1034 is an important step forward in Maine's efforts to protect public health from exposure to harmful chemicals in our daily environments.

Maine's new lead poisoning prevention law;

• Is a significant public health protective measure. According to state health officials the number one environmental threat to children's health is lead poisoning yet nearly 50% of all Mainers are unaware that lead poisoning remains a serious problem and 25% do not know that renovation of older homes can cause lead poisoning if proper precautions are not taken. The new law will help solve this major environmental health problem by putting information in the hands of those who need it most.
• Advances the notion that we need to move toward safer alternatives. The bill ensures the State will conduct an assessment of current uses of lead in consumer products and the availability of effective and affordable lead-free alternatives.
• Continues Maine's commitment to hold manufacturers responsible for the chemicals they choose to use in their products. Homeowners and taxpayers have been bearing the entire cost of cleaning up lead paint for decades. This bill requires paint companies to help pay for lead poisoning prevention efforts and builds upon Maine's precedent setting mercury containing auto switch and electronics waste laws which hold manufacturers financially responsible for protecting public health from the toxins they put into consumer products.

"This is a bill that finally places part of the financial responsibility on the paint industry who knowingly spread poison throughout American homes. This bill is a huge step forward that reflects the change in public sentiment from "let the buyer beware" to "let the seller beware"," said Sandra Roseberry, a Lead Poisoning Prevention Specialist with the Coalition for Environmentally Safe Communities.

In what proved to be a tense political climate in Augusta this session lawmakers were able to come together and agree that the problem of lead poisoning required tangible, immediate attention. The bill passed the House of Representatives with a vote of 86 to 63 and the Senate with an overwhelming 31 to 4 vote. The only opposition to the bill came from the national paint industry which was concerned about being held responsible for having sold a hazardous product for fifty years after it was widely recognized as a poison and banned in Europe. Maine is the second state in the country to require the national paint industry to fund state lead poisoning prevention programs. California adopted a similar measure twelve years ago.

Another lead poisoning prevention bill, LD 1532 sponsored by Representative Sean Faircloth was also adopted by lawmakers this session. LD 1532 improves and updates for Maine the federal lead warning that accompanies real estate sales. This new law will provide warnings for both prospective buyers and tenants that:

• supply information based on the most recent health information;
• include health warnings that are more prominent, forceful and likely to be read;
• provide health consequence warnings that are equitable to prospective tenants and prospective buyers; and
• make clear that the only certain way to safely protect a family from lead poisoning is to conduct a lead test in advance of taking residence.

Sandra Cort, a board member and past president of the Learning Disabilities Association of Maine offered her praise to the lawmakers who supported the bills to reduce lead poisoning, "These new lead poisoning prevention laws are great steps in the right direction to ensure that parents can be informed and protect the neurological health of their children. Hats off to the Legislature and the Governor."

Although lead paint was finally banned in 1978 the problem of lead poisoning persists due to the presence of lead in older buildings. The Maine State Housing Authority estimates that more than 350,000 homes in Maine still contain lead paint. Many more buildings that house businesses contain lead paint and are not included in the Maine State Housing Authority estimate.

Thousands of Maine children are exposed to lead hazards each year in their homes due to leaded dust from deteriorating paint or old paint that becomes disturbed during renovations. Currently 2,700 young children in Maine have lead levels that exceed the federal action level and upwards of 20,000 kids may be exposed to harmful levels of lead.

For more information about Maine's new lead poisoning prevention laws please contact Amanda Sears, Campaign Director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center at 207-772-2181 or via email at asears@preventharm.org.