State maps of lead hazards help people visually understand the risks for their state or their community. When they are interactive, they serve as useful means to access detailed information about those risks.
This is the first time HUD has proposed a formula approach, saying it will “allow more efficient distribution of funding to the highest need communities, streamline the selection and award of grants for communities facing large lead paint problems.” The balance will be competitive and “open to a broader range of States, Native American Tribes, and communities with pre-1978 rental housing.”
With a powerful speech in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power called for a global effort to eliminate toxic lead from consumer goods, stating that “[l]ead poisoning claims a staggering 1.6 million lives each year. That’s more than the deaths caused by malaria and HIV/AIDS combined.”
Congress cut HUD’s FY24 appropriations for its Lead Hazard Reduction Grant Program by 31%, from $290 to $200 million for FY24…Making matters worse, Congress also took back $65 million appropriated in FY22 for this program that HUD had until September 30, 2024, to obligate by issuing grants to communities to clean up lead-based paint hazards.
IRS concludes that “the replacement of lead service lines under the programs described above does not result in income to the residential property owners under § 61 of the Internal Revenue Code.” The property owners’ financial need is not a factor.
Codex’s standards have a global impact because they are referenced in a World Trade Organization agreement. Therefore, although Codex standards are voluntary, food and food ingredients traded between countries are expected to comply with Codex standards.
EPA’s scientists, with support from colleagues at HUD and CDC, published an impressive study identifying the nation’s potential lead exposure hotspots that warrant a deeper analysis for targeting lead actions. The map below shows 30,208 census tracts identified as highest potential lead exposure risk locations based on one of five indexes and two statistical methods.
EPA finalized its Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Lead last week, updating its 2013 version with evidence published in the past decade about the potential effects associated with exposure to lead. Based on the new evidence, the agency revised its 2013 findings of the connection between lead and specific harms.
Rhode Island held an impressive second annual Summit to End Childhood Lead Poisoning cosponsored by the state’s Attorney General and Department of Health. I was honored to be able to join about 200 people who participated in person on February 2.
If finalized as proposed, the rule should virtually eliminate the estimated 9.2 million lead service lines (LSLs) from our public water systems with the vast majority replaced by 2037. This would be a major achievement in the effort to reduce children’s and adult’s exposure to lead in drinking water.
