Lead-Based Paints: Where and Why Are They Still Sold?
In the United States, the last drop of lead-based residential paint was manufactured 36 years ago. Yet for all its wealth compared with the rest of the world, the country is still struggling to overcome its historic use of the paints. As of 2006, an estimated 22% of U.S. homes—23.2 million of them—still contained lead-based paint hazards. And an analysis of data from the 2007–2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicated 535,000 young children could have unsafe blood lead levels at or above 5 μg/dL. In an earlier paper, Trasande estimated that the United States forfeits $50.9 billion in economic activity each year because of IQ points lost to lead exposure.
Even so, the country has wavered in its resolve to address the problem. Congress cut the budget for the Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from $29 million in fiscal year 2011 to $2 million in fiscal year 2012. This significantly cut funding that states relied on for screening, intervention, and cleanup of contaminated homes. To the further dismay of many in the public health community, in October 2013 the CDC eliminated an influential 25-year-old scientific committee that advised it on lead-related matters. Some relief came in January 2014 when Congress restored part of the CDC program's budget, to $15 million.
Dominique Kpokro, program director of GAELP member and IPEN partner Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement, has been working toward a ban on lead-based paints in Côte d'Ivoire. He has been watching the expensive, unfinished cleanup effort in the United States and is mindful that poor nations will find it all but impossible to do even that—all the more reason to abolish lead-based paints now, he says.
IPEN's Weinberg says eliminating lead in decorative paints by 2020 has become a personal goal, one he came out of retirement to accomplish. Additional funding would speed up the job considerably, he says, and there is no question a global effort could succeed with even a relatively modest but consistent stream of resources. "But this is not yet assured, and this promising global effort could still stall," he says. If so, he warns, the world community could again forget about lead-based paints for another 40 years.
On the other hand, Weinberg says, momentum is building as countries act more quickly once their neighbors have gone lead-free and suppliers are increasingly able to provide competitively priced lead-free ingredients. "In terms of cost effectiveness, bang for your buck, eliminating lead paint is about the cheapest public health intervention with the greatest public health benefit imaginable," he says. "We'll do it. … I am certain we will succeed."
Cleaning Up
In the United States, the last drop of lead-based residential paint was manufactured 36 years ago. Yet for all its wealth compared with the rest of the world, the country is still struggling to overcome its historic use of the paints. As of 2006, an estimated 22% of U.S. homes—23.2 million of them—still contained lead-based paint hazards. And an analysis of data from the 2007–2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicated 535,000 young children could have unsafe blood lead levels at or above 5 μg/dL. In an earlier paper, Trasande estimated that the United States forfeits $50.9 billion in economic activity each year because of IQ points lost to lead exposure.
Even so, the country has wavered in its resolve to address the problem. Congress cut the budget for the Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from $29 million in fiscal year 2011 to $2 million in fiscal year 2012. This significantly cut funding that states relied on for screening, intervention, and cleanup of contaminated homes. To the further dismay of many in the public health community, in October 2013 the CDC eliminated an influential 25-year-old scientific committee that advised it on lead-related matters. Some relief came in January 2014 when Congress restored part of the CDC program's budget, to $15 million.
Dominique Kpokro, program director of GAELP member and IPEN partner Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement, has been working toward a ban on lead-based paints in Côte d'Ivoire. He has been watching the expensive, unfinished cleanup effort in the United States and is mindful that poor nations will find it all but impossible to do even that—all the more reason to abolish lead-based paints now, he says.
IPEN's Weinberg says eliminating lead in decorative paints by 2020 has become a personal goal, one he came out of retirement to accomplish. Additional funding would speed up the job considerably, he says, and there is no question a global effort could succeed with even a relatively modest but consistent stream of resources. "But this is not yet assured, and this promising global effort could still stall," he says. If so, he warns, the world community could again forget about lead-based paints for another 40 years.
On the other hand, Weinberg says, momentum is building as countries act more quickly once their neighbors have gone lead-free and suppliers are increasingly able to provide competitively priced lead-free ingredients. "In terms of cost effectiveness, bang for your buck, eliminating lead paint is about the cheapest public health intervention with the greatest public health benefit imaginable," he says. "We'll do it. … I am certain we will succeed."