Should green project lead abatement continue

Under Trumps administration in the direction of.Hud. and possibly one of the things Trump did for inner city youth. 

Carson stopped by the Dewey Community Center in Waco to present a $1.5 million check that will go toward protecting children and families from lead-based paint and home health hazards.

Carson said lead poisoning and its impact on children is uniquely personal for him.

"Prior to becoming the HUD secretary, my life's work as a pediatric neurosurgeon was to heal, treat and protect the human brain," Carson said. "From doctor, to surgeon, to head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. I was made acutely aware of the pernicious effects of lead poisoning on a child's mental and physical development."

According to the CDC, exposure to high levels of lead may cause anemia, weakness and kidney and brain damage

Source Clinton Herald. 

CLINTON — An ongoing program in Clinton and Maquoketa is aiming to rid homes of harmful lead-based paints.

Funded by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and facilitated by the East Central Intergovernmental Association, the program has awarded grant money to both cities for contractor crews to go in to eligible homes and eliminate any of their lead hazards.

According to Clinton Building and Neighborhood Services Battalion Chief Jeff Chapman, many homes in Clinton built before 1974 still may feature lead-based paint.

Practices have been used by homeowners or renters in these specific homes to cover up the paint but not get rid of it. That's where this program becomes crucial, Chapman says.

The program was first brought before the Clinton City Council in late 2017, receiving universal praise for fighting to make Clinton homes safer.

"We've seen where people have just painted newer layers over the old, harmful stuff during our rental inspections," Chapman said. "That covers it up, but the lead-based stuff is still there. That's why we're encouraging people in these homes to get in the system and put in their applications."

The harmful effects of ingesting lead-based substances have become clearer in recent years, spurring initiatives such as this around around the country. Research has shown lead exposure to be a leading cause of afflictions that include blindness or visual hallucinations, kidney failure, digestive failure, and various central nervous and muscular system issues.

ECIA Program Manager Kim Glaser said last week that the initiative is currently tackling 64 units in a three-year period, using a group of four local contractors to do the work. Two-thirds of those units will be specifically in Clinton, with the remaining third in Maquoketa.

Both Chapman and Glaser stressed that the program is targeting units in which children under the age of 6 spend large amounts of time, even if the unit isn't necessarily the child's home residence. Glaser offered examples such as a grandparent's home in which the grandchild spends time in, or houses where daycare is provided.

"The important thing here is the effort to focus on children's health and safety," Glaser said. "The goal here is to make the home as safe as it can possibly be. But this is also a great opportunity for property owners to improve the state of their units. It's basically using grant money to fund a project so they themselves don't have to."

The partnership between the cities and the ECIA is a building block for things to come in the future as well, Glaser said.

"This could be just building a pipeline for more upcoming initiatives," Glaser said of the program. "It could kind of be a multi-pronged thing. We're hoping that it can be the first of several health and safety projects that we're able to complete in that area."

Interested individuals or families can visit the ECIA website to read full eligibility requirements, and fill out an application for potential lead abatement in their homes.