As Cincinnati officials move to accelerate their bogged-down lead-paint abatement program, the overall battle against lead poisoning is on course to affect thousands of Tristate residents.
This week, city officials promised to devote more staff to a $6 million lead-paint abatement program that had fallen far behind its goal of repairing 350 homes. But the lead-paint issue is much bigger than Cincinnati's troubled program.
Health officials say more than 90 percent of Cincinnati homes - and more than half of all homes in America - have at least some lead paint because they were built before 1978, the year when lead-based paint was banned.
That means a multitude of Tristate residents eventually will be affected by stricter federal, state and local laws that require property owners to do more than ever before to take care of lead-paint hazards.
The lead-paint issue is becoming a fact of life for homeowners, much like termite inspections or installing smoke detectors. The lead-paint rules are expanding even in situations where children have not been poisoned and even though experts still debate which types of abatement work best.
"The guidelines and rules are getting stricter," Cincinnati Health Commissioner Malcolm Adcock said. "The dilemma is this . . . several years ago there was an epidemiological analysis of lead data from all across the country. The conclusion was that no amount of lead in the body could be considered OK. But lead is almost everywhere."
Even in small amounts - amounts two to five times lower than levels that warrant medical treatment - scientists say lead in the blood of young children can damage IQ, stunt growth, damage hearing and cause developmental disabilities. At low levels, the amount of damage can be small, but it can still occur.
Society already pays a bill for lead poisoning in the form of medical treatment and increased demand for special education and mental health services. With laws in place that require unleaded gasoline and that ban lead from paint, food cans and solder, the biggest known source of lead poisoning is old lead paint.
"We are not suggesting that all lead paint be removed from all housing. Most old houses do not poison most children," said David Jacobs, director of lead control for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "But we also know that we had 930,000 children poisoned last year, mostly because of paint in old houses."
The idea behind HUD's lead-abatement program in Cincinnati and other cities was to see whether poisoning problems could be reduced by fixing homes and to see whether the job requires expensive repairs or minor ones.
The jury is still out. Studies have not established whether spending $18,000 to rip out windows, hang drywall and replace woodwork and carpets throughout a house works much better than spending a few thousand dollars cleaning, repainting and sealing painted surfaces. Experts also are still studying how long lead-abatement efforts last before homes become recontaminated.
The lack of data about cost-effectiveness hasn't stopped standards from getting stricter.
Federal and state rules already require disclosing the presence of lead-paint during all real estate transactions. The disclosure laws do not require repairs, but they have made lead paint a potentially thorny negotiating issue for buyers and sellers.
City health regulations already require inspections and repairs in situations where children have high blood lead levels. Although officials say there is plenty of room for negotiating details of repairs, owners can face prosecution and fines if they refuse to correct the lead-paint problems.
Starting next year, HUD will start requiring people who get federal grants or low-interest loans to have their buildings tested and treated for lead-paint problems.
In Cincinnati alone, about 2,000 people a year use federal assistance for various repair jobs. If hazards are detected, they will have to be fixed even if children have normal blood lead levels or there are no children living on the property.
So what can property owners expect, should a city lead-paint inspector come knocking on the door?
The abatement program has just started - with work under way at two units and fewer than 30 units under contract - but property owners already have complained about city officials ordering long lists of expensive and questionable repairs.
For example, a homeowner in Price Hill was given a 26-page assessment that gave her 60 days to deal with lead hazards, including replacing a decorative wood cornice above her front door that no child could reach and treating a kitchen ceiling that doesn't show a fleck of chipping paint.
The city did not intend to sound so strict, said Addy Kochanowski, the city health officer who manages the HUD grant program.
In fact, property owners can negotiate the details of lead-paint repairs with the city. If scrubbing an area with lead-fighting detergent or coating a surface with a special sealer will work as well as replacing or removing woodwork, that might be fine with the city, Mrs. Kochanowski said.
If property owners dispute city work orders or costs, they can seek a second opinion by getting their own estimates from other licensed lead-paint abatement contractors.
"We're not trying to create financial problems for people," she said.
While repair jobs so far in Cincinnati's abatement program have ranged from $8,000 to $18,000, officials still predict that many properties in reasonable shape can control lead hazards with thorough cleanings and minor repainting that might cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
Officials say they want to focus lead-paint abatement programs primarily on the most run-down homes and apartments, where the risk of lead poisoning is highest. Unless a child shows up with signs of lead-poisoning, people who own well-maintained buildings should not fear inspections and extensive work orders from the city.
Previous stories
CITY PROMISES TO SPEED UP LEAD CLEANUP July 11, 1997
LEAD PROGRAM LASHED July 10, 1997
CITY WANTS ANSWERS TO LEAD CLEANUP July 8, 1997
CITY LEAD CLEANUP STALLED July 6, 1997
POISON! LEAD MENACES CHILDREN July 6, 1997
CLEANING UP A LEAD-TAINTED HOUSE July 6, 1997
