By Sharon Coolidge
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati City Council has a message for property owners: If your building violates the city's health code, you could go to jail.
Last week, City Council toughened health laws by closing a loophole in city law that prevented health officials from enforcing the health code - in particular going after property owners who refuse to clean up lead-contaminated properties that could poison young children.
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"It was long overdue," Cincinnati Health Commissioner Malcolm Adcock said. "It's one of those things - you have to get to the point where you have enough support to do it."
For years, the health department couldn't make property owners clean up lead-tainted property.
Between January 1995 and April, 355 landlords who were ordered to clean up their property failed to make necessary repairs within 90 days as required by law, according to the health department.
Adcock said now, the city's tougher law, along with new state laws, will allow the city's health department to review those old cases.
A request by the Enquirer to obtain the city's lead orders was denied. Adcock contends that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which is federal law intended to protect medical information, forbids the release of those records. The city is notified of lead-contaminated buildings after children are medically screened for elevated lead levels in their blood.
The Enquirer is suing the Cincinnati Health Department for those records.
"Our position is that HIPAA does not cover these records and that the state public record law requires disclosure and supercedes the HIPAA provisions," said lawyer Jack Greiner, who represents the newspaper.
![[img]](lead.jpg)
Michael McCarthy, left, with his children at their rental home in East Walnut Hills. McCarthy
contends that when the landlord powerwashed the home, lead was released into the air,
poisoning his children. He has been in a debate with the landlord and is now being evicted.
(Jeff Swinger photo)
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Michael McCarthy, a Walnut Hills man living with his wife and four children under the age of 12 in a home contaminated by lead, said he sees the benefit of the tougher punishment for landlords, but thinks the health department must do more.
He's frustrated because the Cincinnati Health Department won't help parents unless their children have already been poisoned.
"I'm glad the city is taking enforcement more seriously, but the policy of not responding unless a child already is poisoned is a roadblock to helping children," McCarthy said.
Fine increased, jail possible
For years, community groups have clamored for a crackdown on negligent landlords whose eyesore properties can ruin real estate values, scare off investors or harbor crime dens.
Building code violations and fire code violations were punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail, but health department violations were a minor misdemeanor, a charge with no jail time attached. Some landlords would rather pay the $100 fine than do costly clean up, officials have said.
City Council's move last week closed that gap. Now, health code violations are punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and a jail stay of up to six months.
"This gives a lot more power to the health department," said attorney Terry Cosgrove, who works in the city's law department. "Obviously, if you have a law and want it to have teeth, it needs to be more than a minor misdemeanor."
Health department officials have long been frustrated, especially when it comes to lead-tainted property.
About 434,000 children in the United States ages 1-5 years have blood levels greater than 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That's the level at which they say a child should be medically treated to lower lead levels.
Elevated lead levels in children can cause learning disabilities, behavioral problems and at very high levels, death.
In 2002, the most recent statistics available, the Cincinnati Health Department investigated 148 children who had elevated levels of lead in their blood.
The major source of lead exposure is lead-based paint and lead-contaminated dust found in deteriorating buildings. Lead-based paints were banned for use in housing in 1978. The CDC estimates that 24 million housing units in the United States have deteriorated lead paint and elevated levels of lead-contaminated house dust.
Of Cincinnati's 165,945 housing units, 154,667 were built before 1979, according to the 2000 census.
That doesn't mean everyone who lives in an older home should worry, Adcock said.
"It is the homes that have been neglected, that have water damage and peeling paint that are the problem," Adcock said.
When a child with lead poisoning is identified, the health department tracks the source, which is usually the home in which they had been living, Adcock said.
Then it orders the landlord or homeowner of the problem building to have the lead abated by a licensed contractor within 90 days. In the past when that wasn't done, the department had no way to force a landlord to remove the lead.
Raining lead flakes
In McCarthy's case, his landlord power washed the Victorian home where he lives in preparation to paint it about a month ago. Because the home was built at the turn of the century, the paint contained lead.
As it flaked off from the blasts, the lead-tainted paint rained on the home. Layers of lead dust coated furniture. The lead paint chips littered the lawn. Tests done by the University of Cincinnati - despite a cleanup - show the air in the home contains high levels of lead.
The Cincinnati Health Department told McCarthy that it couldn't help him. It tests homes only when children have already been poisoned. Lead poisoning isn't immediately detected; it builds over time. So although McCarthy's children aren't poisoned now, it could show up in a few months.
"What we have the budget to do is follow up on homes where children have been affected," Adcock said.
Testing children only after high levels of lead are detected in their blood makes no sense, said Dr. Bruce Lanphear, director of the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center.
His studies of lead-contaminated house dust and residential soil were used to help establish a federal standard for lead in residential dwellings.
McCarthy's landlord and neighbor, Phillip Cameron, said he didn't know the dangers of lead-based paint when the home was power washed last month.
Now he's working to have the home cleaned up, but it is a long process, he said. He has called a lead abatement company and is waiting for its estimate.
He has also offered to let McCarthy out of his lease and give him $500 toward a move.
Because it would be tough to move while his wife battles cancer, McCarthy is hoping for a quick cleanup.
In the meantime, he has bought a vacuum with environmentally safe filters and cleans constantly.
And he has cracked down on playtime.
McCarthy's mantra to his children has been: Don't touch the walls. Don't leave your toys on the floor. No playing outside.
"Until the exterior is cleaned up, we can't protect ourselves from the hazard," he said.
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E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com
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