[S]tate lawmakers want to consolidate and clarify regulations designed to prevent lead poisoning, a problem that affects hundreds of Vermont children every year.
The Senate and House have approved H.736, which says Vermont’s Department of Health should take charge of lead-based paint rules for property maintenance. Currently, that authority is split between the state and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The bill also streamlines regulations that tell contractors and property owners when they have to use “lead-safe work practices.”
The overall goal, officials said, is to continue reducing the number of children who suffer permanent damage from exposure to lead.
“The damage is irreversible, but it is entirely preventable,” said Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden.
The Health Department’s latest report illustrates the state’s ongoing battle against lead poisoning, which can cause brain and nervous-system damage; slower growth and development; learning and behavior problems; and hearing and speech issues.
The report says Vermont has made “steady progress” by reducing the number of children with elevated blood-lead levels — currently defined as 5 micrograms per deciliter or more. For example, the percentage of 2-year-olds with elevated lead levels has declined from 22.5 percent in 2006 to 4.2 percent in 2017.
But officials say those rates are not falling at the same rate they had been. The Health Department’s report also notes that the lead-testing rates for Vermont 1-year-olds “has declined steadily” in recent years, thwarting the state’s goal of universal testing.
Though the federal government banned lead-based paint in 1978, officials say the problem remains pervasive: More than 70 percent of Vermont’s residential structures were built before that year.
And while original layers of lead paint may have been covered over, that doesn’t take away the risk. Opening and closing doors and windows can still release lead dust.
So can renovation, repair and painting work, which is the focus of H.736.
The bill’s primary goal is to bring lead-paint activities under the state’s purview “so that all of our contractors and other business folks have one place to go to understand the requirements,” Lyons said.
The current lead regulations can be overlapping and confusing, officials say. For example, the federal government is in charge of pre-1978 residential housing and “child-occupied properties,” while the state monitors pre-1978 rental housing and child care facilities.
Shayla Livingston, a public health policy adviser for the Health Department, recently told legislators that she doesn’t expect the EPA to oppose the state’s taking control of lead-paint rules.
“They want this to happen,” Livingston told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. “They want the states to take over this program.”
That doesn’t mean it will happen overnight. Vermont must get formal approval from the federal government, and the latest version of H.736 says “the commissioner of health shall take necessary steps to receive all appropriate authority from the EPA not later than December 2019.”
If the change envisioned in the bill occurs, state health officials are expecting benefits beyond simply clarifying who’s in charge of lead regulations.
“Through better education, through better outreach and a little bit more of a hands-on approach, we’re hoping that we can have better compliance,” Livingston said last month. “Of course, the public health purpose of all this is to prevent lead poisoning, particularly among children.”
Officials said they’re not imposing new fees or regulations. But there is one important change to the “trigger” for lead-safe work requirements.
Currently, the federal government says that trigger is the disturbance of 6 square feet of interior painted surface or 20 square feet of disturbance outside. For the types of structures Vermont regulates, the state uses a 1-square-foot standard whether indoors or outdoors.
“If you were a licensed contractor, you would have questions about, what building am I looking at?” Lyons said. That’s an even bigger issue if a structure is used for multiple purposes, she added.
The new standard under H.736 would be 1 square foot inside and 20 square feet outside — a “single trigger for all structures,” Lyons said.
The regulations don’t apply to properties that have been certified as lead-free by a licensed inspector.
Also, homeowners can perform work on their own private residences without being subject to all the provisions of H.736. But they still have to dispose of lead-based paint properly, and they are prohibited from engaging in a list of “unsafe work practices” while removing that paint.
