Making Homes Lead-Safe, Healthy Environments for Children and Adults
[June 9, 2004] San Francisco took a major step to protect children and adults from lead poisoning when the Mayor signed legislation approved by the Board of Supervisors requiring lead-safe work practices when disturbing paint inside pre 1979 homes occupied by renters and child care facilities.
Neil Gendel, the director of the Healthy Children Organizing Project, stated that: “This legislation is an expansion of a city ordinance enacted in 1997 prohibiting unsafe work practices when disturbing paint on the exteriors of all pre 1979 constructed buildings.”
“Ninety-four percent [94%] of all housing in San Francisco was built before 1979. Almost all of the city’s rental housing is literally painted with lead, especially in low and moderate income, minority neighborhoods. Dust containing lead from paint is the primary source of childhood lead poisoning. A great deal of dust can be created when disturbing paint inside a home and in the common areas of an apartment building. Even microscopic amounts of leaded dust can easily poison a child.”
“Lead poisoning can affect a child’s health, behavior and development for a lifetime. It can result in the loss of IQ, aggressive behavior, stunted growth, attention deficit and reading disorders, and more. Recent research reveals that it can cause or be a factor in a number of adult disorders too. There is no cure for the damage done by lead poisoning. Prevention is the key. We need to prevent the use of unsafe work practices when disturbing paint in older housing, and we need to do it now.”
“The City’s Lead Hazard Reduction Citizens Advisory Committee [Committee] recommended the proposed legislation. The Board of Supervisors created the Committee in 1992 to develop legislation to make private housing and child care facilities lead-safe for children, especially low-income children. Neil Gendel has been the chair of the Committee from its inception. The Committee’s members include representatives of property owners, tenants, contractors, unions, children’s health advocates, appropriate city agencies, and more. The Department of Public Health serves as an advisor to the Committee. The current legislative proposal is the third major piece of legislation recommended by the Committee over the past 10 years. Supervisor Aaron Peskin is the author of this legislation.”
“Committee members experienced in the building trades taught us that using safe work practices is not complicated. It means containing debris generated by disturbing paint within the work area, preventing access to the area while work is going on, and properly cleaning up before allowing tenants reenter it,” Gendel stated.
“This legislation will provide major benefits for everyone:
- Children will be healthier and have the opportunity to perform better in school and obtain better jobs as adults;
- Low-income families will be better able to maintain their jobs and the stability of their families;
- Low-income communities will have more healthy children and families to help build and sustain their communities;
- Family and children services provided by dedicated community-based organizations will be more effective;
- City agencies and the city’s budget will be free from the additional costs and programs needed to help lead-poisoned children, including the city’s health, educational, human services, juvenile and criminal justice services and systems;
- Contractors already using lead-safe work practices will have a ‘level playing field’ with other contractors;
- Property owners’ potential for liability will be reduced because their contractors and property management personnel use safe work practices that protect children’s health; and,
- Workers will be protected from lead poisoning and from taking home lead hazards which may poison their own children.”
“There is a strong element of social and environmental justice present in our effort. Large numbers of people of color with low incomes live in San Francisco. Most are renters and many are immigrants, a number of whom do not speak English as their first language. Significant numbers don’t realize the danger to them and their families when lead paint is disturbed in their homes.”
According to Gendel: “This legislation is a major step forward in our continuing efforts to make San Francisco’s homes and other environments lead-safe for children. It represents significant progress in protecting children and their families from exposures to toxins in their environment and the needless suffering that is caused by those exposures.”
“We want to thank Supervisor Peskin for authoring the legislation, its co-sponsoring Supervisors Daly and Maxwell, and all the other Supervisors who voted for it. The final vote was unanimous. We also want to thank Mayor Newsom for signing the legislation.”
Healthy Homes = Healthy Children = Healthy Families = Healthy Communities
To download the wording of this lead prevention legislation, click on the links below:
http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/site/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/ordinances04/o0098-04.pdf
http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/site/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/ordinances04/o0099-04.pdf
