When the Enemy Is Lead Paint

Two years ago Gov. Pete Wilson signed a bill to bolster state services for the detection and treatment of lead poisoning in children. This month, by signing AB 383, he can complete the good work begun then.

The state estimates that 560,000 California children under 6--one in five--are at risk from lead because they live in contaminated housing. Lead poisoning can cause brain and kidney damage and serious behavioral problems.

AB 383, now on Wilson’s desk, would ensure that lead paint in homes and businesses is safely and effectively removed. The bill would bring California into compliance with federal law on lead removal by directing the state to develop rules for the training and certification of contractors engaged in lead abatement. Such standards are needed to protect tenants and others from poorly trained construction workers who inadvertently spread toxic particles in the environment.

But more than concern about the continued exposure of Californians to lead should prompt the governor to sign AB 383. If he vetoes the bill, California stands to lose $10 million in current lead-abatement funding from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department and the state would be ineligible for millions of dollars in future federal grants. With lead-based paint in many of the 2.2 million housing units built before 1950, this is money--and construction work--that the state can ill afford to forfeit.

Maryland and Massachusetts already have complied with the 1992 federal law. Many other states are, like California, in the process of doing so. But if we falter, the federal government will impose its own regulations on California businesses in order to protect public safety and prevent consumer rip-offs by unscrupulous or untrained contractors. And that imposition would deny the state the substantial sums of federal money that it otherwise would receive.

ABA 383 has widespread support. Moreover, the influential California Chamber of Commerce, Southern California Edison and the Associated General Contractors of California have formally dropped the opposition they had raised against the bill.

Gov. Wilson should act now in the best interests of California’s children and California’s construction industry.