Illinois readies for new federal law to eliminate lead poisoning
Rule targets Illinois' top child environmental illness
Print
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The state took a step Tuesday to reduce lead poisoning, the No.
1
environmental illness in Illinois children, according to health
officials.
In response to new federal regulations, the state hosted the first
of
several statewide sessions to explain new certification procedures
for
contractors.
The new Environmental Protection Agency rule on renovation and
repair
requires contractors working on any buildings built before 1978 or
that are
occupied by children to be certified in lead-safe practices. The
rule goes
into effect in April.
More than 5,000 Illinois children had elevated blood lead levels
in 2008,
exceeding any other state, according to the Illinois
Department of Public
Health. Children in Chicago are required to be tested for
lead between the
ages of six months and six years.
"Lead poisoning can cause learning
disabilities, language processing
disorders, shortened attention span and behavioral
problems," according to a
plan released by the public health department in
2004. At high levels, lead
can cause organ damage and death.
Lead poisoning is most commonly caused by deteriorating lead-based
paint,
lead-contaminated dust and lead-contaminated residential soil,
according to
the EPA.
"Lead-abatement, for the most part,
waits until a child gets sick first,"
said Nicholas Peneff, owner of Public Health and Safety, Inc. in
Chicago.
"We're trying to prevent that. We're trying to treat the house
first."
Peneff's company is an EPA and state-accredited training center
where
contractors can earn certification in lead-safe practices.
Without certification, contractors will face a fine of $37,500 for
each day
they work. "It's all regulated now," Peneff said. "It's federal.
They'll
stop you from advertising, from working in pre-1978 houses."
The required training focuses on lead-safe work habits. "If you
are going to
damage or remove something, you try to do so without disturbing
the finish,"
Peneff said. "You work wet, so it keeps the dust down. Lead is in
the dust."
Most of the contractors Peneff sees at his training sessions are
eager to
comply. "They're proud of their work," Peneff said. "They don't
want to be
embarrassed."
But contractors are not without their concerns.
"People either think they're going to lose work, or that it's
going to prove
there is lead," Peneff said. "Once you call it lead, if anything
goes wrong,
most insurance companies have an insurance exclusion. They have to
become
environmental contractors [with the new rule], but they can't get
insurance
to protect their work."
