EPA has designated January as National Radon Action Month
in order to raise awareness about the health effects of radon exposure, promote
radon testing and mitigation, and advance the use of radon-resistant
new construction. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer deaths
among nonsmokers in America, causing about 20,000 deaths each year.
Because radon is invisible, odorless, and tasteless, testing
is the only way to know if a home has a high concentration of radon. EPA and
the Surgeon General recommend that all residences below the third floor of a
building be tested for radon. There are both short-term and long-term tests.
EPA recommends initial measurements for radon be taken with short-term tests
placed in the lowest lived-in level of the residence. Radon testing kits are
available at a discounted price from the National Safety Council’s Radon
Hotline (1-800-767-7236) and at various retail locations such as hardware stores.
Eliminating
Lead Exposure in New Jersey Estimated to Save $27 Billion
A study commissioned by the New Jersey Department of the
Public Advocate concluded that nearly eliminating lead exposure amongst all
children aged zero to six in New Jersey would result in benefits of $27 billion
over their lifetimes. The study quantified the benefits
of reducing blood lead levels to less than 1?g/dL for all children, looking
at the impacts of lead exposure on future earnings, as well as the costs of
special education, medical treatment, criminal activity, incarceration, reliance
on public assistance and premature death. The study also considered the costs
to the state budget, finding elimination of blood lead levels over 1 would save
nearly $9 billion for the state over the children’s lifetimes. The benefits
could reasonably expected to be similar for future generations of children.
A
full copy of the report is available from the Advocate’s
office, as well as a summarizing
press release. The study was conducted by Columbia University researcher
Peter Muennig and City College of New York student Pichchenda Bao.
EPA
Seeks Comment on Use of Canceled Pesticide to Fight Bedbugs
The Ohio Department of Agriculture has requested the US
EPA to allow it to use the banned pesticide “propoxur” to combat
bedbugs under an emergency public health exemption. Citing the well publicized
resurgence of bed bugs, and their increasing resistance to pyrethroid pesticides
labeled for this type of use, Ohio requested that EPA temporarily allow use
of propoxur to combat the pests. EPA effectively banned spray forms of propoxur
in 2007 when it accepted a voluntary cancellation request from product manufacturers
following nearly two decades of reviews and increasingly limited legal applications.
Propoxur is highly neurotoxic and carcinogenic, and has been shown to remain
in homes for long after its application.
The Alliance opposes an exemption to the propoxur ban and
encourages healthy housing advocates to contact the EPA to urge them to deny
Ohio’s request. Although the request would apply immediately only to Ohio,
several states are reported to have expressed interest in replicating the request.
The short-term benefits of propoxur use to address bedbugs are not worth the
long-term risks to children and other occupants, especially given the availability
of alternatives. Rather than rely on highly toxic sprays, bedbugs can and should
be controlled through IPM methods, including limiting access, use of non-toxic
steam or heat treatments, and minimum toxicity treatments.
Advocates Encourage EPA to Add RRP to Enforcement Priorities
On January 4, EPA
published a proposed list of National Enforcement and Compliance
Assistance Priorities for Fiscal Years 2011-2013. Developed every three years,
the National Enforcement Priorities help EPA and its state partners “focus
resources toward the most significant environmental problems and human health
challenges.” EPA will accept public comment on the list, including adding
additional topic areas, through January 19.
While the list includes many worthy enforcement activities,
including pesticide use at day-care facilities and community-based approaches
to environmental justice, missing from the list is the Renovation, Repair, and
Painting Rule. As one of the last remaining pieces of Title X, the RRP rule
will close a significant loophole in lead-based paint regulation, requiring
all activity that disturbs lead-based paint to be done safely. It has the potential
to prevent lead exposure amongst millions of children. The regulated community,
including hundreds of thousands of painters, remodelers, and contractors were
previously unregulated by the EPA. Many of these individuals and companies are
ignorant of the requirements and others may see the requirements as being unlikely
to be seriously enforced and therefore unworthy of their consideration. Industry
leaders and advocates agree that a strong enforcement presence will be required
to see the rule successfully implemented.
The Alliance strongly encourages advocates to write the
EPA and encourage them to add enforcement of the Renovation, Repair, and Painting
rule to the list of enforcement priorities. Adding RRP to the list will help
both send the message to regulated industry that EPA is taking enforcement of
the rule seriously and encourage EPA to assign the necessary resources to enforce
the rule. Comments may be submitted on www.regulations.gov
referencing docket number EPA–HQ–OECA–2009–0986 through
January 19.
Obama Administration
Promotes Anti-Regulatory Economist to Gatekeeper Role
The Washington
Post as well as several blogs,
reported in early December that Cass Sunstein, the head of the White House Office
of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), detailed conservative, anti-regulatory
economist Randall Lutter from the FDA to assist at OIRA. An arm of OMB, OIRA
has substantial influence over Federal Agency Regulations, as agencies have
to submit proposed rules to OIRA for review and comment
before publishing them.
Mr. Lutter is well known to lead poisoning prevention advocates,
having previously written
extensively on how HUD and EPA’s lead standards are too strict.
Amongst Mr. Lutter’s more “interesting” rationales for this
conclusion was that HUD and EPA measured the benefits of decreased lead exposures
to the children, rather than measuring the benefits to the parents, arguing
that children will live longer lives and earn more money than their parents
irregardless of their lead exposure and it is therefore unfair to force parents
to have to pay for the cost of lead hazard control. Further, Mr. Lutter’s
statement, “… the children who would benefit from reduced lead hazards
are living in the care of their parents, and their parents have control of such
hazards” profoundly ignored the reality that few parents have the information
available to choose lead-safe housing and many families, including those living
in publicly assisted housing addressed by the HUD rule he was critiquing, may
have no choice in their housing arrangements.
A group of advocates, including the Alliance, the National
Center for Healthy Housing, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Northern Manhattan
Improvement Corporation, and many others, along with a number of prominent researchers
and others concerned about this hire wrote
to OMB Director Peter Orszag expressing our concerns. We have not
yet received a response.
Appropriations
Update
On December 16, President Obama signed the act authorizing
FY2010 appropriations for federal agencies including CDC, EPA, and HUD. The
Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control received $140 million, with
$20 million designated for the Healthy Homes Initiative and $48 million for
lead abatement in areas with the highest needs. This represents
level funding from FY2009, but reflects an increase in funding dedicated to
the Healthy Homes Initiative from $14.6 to $20 million. CDC’s Lead Poisoning
Prevention and Healthy Homes Program was also level-funded again.
The Alliance has long supported increasing HUD’s
OHHLHC budget to at least the $230 million a year recommended by 2000 President’s
Task Force, and increasing the CDC Lead-Healthy Homes effort by $20 million
to fully advance healthy homes efforts led by health departments.
EPA Seeks
to Disclose Inert Pesticide Ingredients
The EPA is requesting
public comment on options for disclosing inert ingredients in pesticides.
Advocates are encouraged to support full disclosure
of inert ingredients in comments to EPA due by February 22.
An inert ingredient is anything added to a pesticide that
does not kill or control a pest. Even though in some cases they are toxic or
dangerous to humans, EPA does not currently require inerts to be identified
on pesticide labels. Nearly 4,000 inerts - including several hundred that are
considered hazardous under other federal rules - are used in agricultural and
residential pesticides, including formaldehyde, bisphenol A, sulfuric acid,
toluene, benzene and styrene. Such unidentified inert ingredients can cause
cancer, reproductive problems or respiratory problems
EPA was first petitioned by environmental groups and state
officials seeking public disclosure of the ingredients 11 years ago. In 2001,
EPA denied those petitions filed by ten state attorney generals and an environmental
coalition, and that decision was upheld by a federal judge in 2004. In 2006,
the Northwest Coalition and 15 state attorney generals sent new petitions to
EPA, specifically seeking the listing of 374 chemicals that are considered hazardous
under other environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act. In September, EPA
said that a chemical-by-chemical approach was not practical and “would
potentially result in numerous challenges regarding individual products.”
Instead, the agency said, it would consider requiring disclosure of all inert
ingredients regardless of hazard or only those that are considered potentially
hazardous. Some of the requirements may be voluntary.
Winter
Weather Brings Reminder to Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas that
can cause sudden illness and death if inhaled. When power outages occur
during emergencies such as winter storms, the use of alternative sources of
fuel or electricity for heating or cooking can cause CO to build up in a home
or garage and harm occupants. The CDC has put together a new resource page for
winter weather: http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/,
including information on preventing CO poisoning.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is soliciting
applications for funding to reduce pollution at the local level through the
Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program. CARE is a community-based
program that works with county and local governments, tribes, non-profit organizations
and universities to help the public understand and reduce
toxic risks from numerous sources.
EPA will award CARE cooperative agreements in two levels.
Level I awards range from $75,000 to $100,000 and will help establish community-based
partnerships to develop local environmental priorities. Level II awards, ranging
from $150,000 to $300,000 each, will support communities that have established
broad-based partnerships, have identified the priority toxic risks in the community,
and are prepared to measure results, implement risk-reduction activities and
become self-sustaining.
Applications for the CARE grants are due March 9, 2010.
EPA will conduct three Webcasts to answer questions from prospective applicants
about the application process on Feb. 2, 23, and 26 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
More information about the grants is available at http://www.epa.gov/care.
Recent
Research in Healthy Housing
Higher blood lead boosts depression, panic risk
Lead exposure well within levels generally considered safe may harm mental health,
new research suggests. Dr. Maryse F. Bouchard and her team looked at data from
the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 1999-2004 on 1,987
men and women 20 to 39 years old. Those with the highest levels of lead in their
blood were more than twice as likely to suffer from
major depression as their peers with the lowest blood lead levels, while their
risk of panic disorder was nearly five times greater, researchers found. About
7 percent met diagnostic criteria for major depression, while around 2 percent
had panic disorder and another 2 percent had generalized anxiety disorder. Study
participants' average blood lead level was 1.61 micrograms per deciliter of
blood, and ranged from 0.3 to 37.3 micrograms per deciliter. High levels
of lead are known to interfere with the function of neurotransmitters in the
brain like serotonin and dopamine, Bouchard explained, and this could be the
mechanism through which lead exposure might contribute to depression and panic
disorder. Read the abstract in the Archives of General
Psychiatry, December 2009. http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/66/12/1313
Household pesticide exposure linked to increased
risk for arthritis and lupus
Regular or long-term exposure to consumer insecticides may increase the risk
of developing autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid
arthritis and lupus. Previous research has suggested a link between exposure
to agricultural insecticides and the development of arthritis and lupus; but
in this study, scientists set out to determine if the same risks could apply
to household products used in residential gardens or yards. It is estimated
about 75% of households use some such product. For this study, researchers
at the National Institutes of Health identified more than 76,000 women between
the ages of 50 to 79 who had taken part in the Women’s Health Initiative
Observational Study, which gathered information from generally healthy postmenopausal
women. Compared to women who reported no insecticide exposure, disease risk
was more than doubled in those who reported using insecticides six or more times
per year and in women who had used them less frequently but over longer time
period – for 20 or more years. For more information, visit http://www.arthritistoday.org/news/bug-spray-insecticide-arthritis-lupus007.php.
Alliance News
The Alliance would like to thank former Community Projects
Director Ralph Scott for over 12 outstanding years on the Alliance staff! Ralph
joined the Alliance in 1997 to help build the capacity of the Alliance, state
and local advocacy organizations and national stakeholders to work collaboratively
on lead poisoning prevention. Throughout his tenure, Ralph conducted countless
trainings in lead-safe remodeling, repair and painting; lead sampling technician;
and safe and healthy restoration of water-damaged homes. Additionally, he collaborated
with other staff on major projects including the Community Environmental Health
Resource Center, Leveraging the Federal Lead Disclosure Law, and Holding the
Lead Industry Accountable. Ralph showed enormous dedication and expertise in
the Alliance’s advocacy work with grassroots groups. We will miss him
enormously on staff.
* * * * *
Sign up to receive updates from the Alliance! To receive
the Alliance Alert in your inbox and to subscribe to our no-cost listserves
(Leadnet and Healthyhomesnet), visit
our website.
Upcoming
Events
The Alliance continues to hold “Train the Trainer”
courses throughout the country in order to help prepare organizations to become
accredited trainers under EPA’s rule. We are currently enrolling students
for a class in partnership with the Healthy Homes Collaborative in Los Angeles
on January 28 and 29, and a class in partnership with the NeighborWorks Training
Institute in New Orleans March 1-2. Check the Alliance’s
training page for updated information.
The Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs
(AMCHP) invites you to be a part of the 2010 Annual Conference, March 6-10,
2010, at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center - National Harbor,
Maryland. AMCHP is the national organization representing state public health
leaders and others working to improve the health and well being of women, children
and youth, including those with special healthcare needs, and families. AMCHP
promotes family-centered, culturally competent, community-based systems of care
for all. Sign
up today!
“Lead and Beyond: Progress in Eliminating Lead Poisoning
and New Opportunities for Collaboration in New Jersey” will be held at
the Sheraton Edison Hotel, Raritan Center, 125 Raritan Center Parkway, Edison,
NJ on April 16, 2010. The conference is sponsored by the New Jersey Interagency
Task Force on the Prevention of Lead Poisoning and the Governor's Council on
the Prevention of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. The deadline
to register is April 2, 2010. More information is available online at http://www.state.nj.us/dca/dcr/leadsafe/upcomingevents.html.
“The Indoor Environmental Health and Technologies
Conference” sponsored by the Lead and Environmental Hazards Association
and “The Lead and Healthy Homes Grantees Conference” sponsored by
the National Association of Lead and Healthy Homes Grantees will he held April
27 – 30, 2010, at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel, New Orleans, LA. There
also will be some pre-conference workshops on Monday, April 26th. The joint
national conference includes program tracks and technical assistance workshops
dealing with lead hazard control, lead poisoning prevention and healthy home
program issues. Program tracks, technical assistance workshops and consultation
roundtables are offered from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon to
provide in-depth education and discussion. A special “early bird”
registration discount is offered until December 31. For details, visit http://www.leadmoldconferences.com/website/conference-program-2010.
