Bright Paint or Bright Kids - CDC’s lead poisoning prevention funding in danger
Last month, Congress approved the FY12 budget, and decreased funding for the CDC’s Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program by 94%—virtually dismantling the program.
Banning lead in gasoline and most paint in the United States has been a public health victory that—even in the face of powerful industries and their lobbyists—has benefited all of us. But, at one time, it was also a difficult choice politically, and it took advocates years to change national policies to protect health.
In the Nation of Change article, “Bright Paint or Bright Kids,” (see below) Larry Cohen, Executive Director of the Preventin Institute describes how lead poisoning prevention advocates succeeded in building healthier communities through policy change, despite corporations downplaying the problem and lobbyist attempts to derail their efforts.
When I was repainting the exterior of my house in Oakland, I showed the painter a photo of a house painted with bright blue trim. “That’s the color I want,” I said to the painter, who shook his head disapprovingly and said, “You can’t do blue. It won’t stay bright since they took the lead out of paint.”
When I tell this story, I often ask, sarcastically, “Who were “they”? Why had “they” deprived me of a bright blue trim, by taking the lead out of paint?” “And I don’t even have kids,” I would protest, “Let me think, bright paint or bright kids? Bright paint or bright kids? I don’t know which to choose, which is more important?” This sarcasm sounds ridiculous – how could this be a difficult choice for anyone? Could it be more obvious?
Banning lead in gasoline and most paint in the United States has been a public health victory that—even in the face of powerful industries and their lobbyists—has benefited all of us. But, at one time, it was also a difficult choice politically. Today, it has become one again and it is time we speak up..
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The FY12 budget approved by Congress last month decreased funding for the CDC’s Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program by 94%-- virtually dismantling the program. Cutting the program now will halt decades of national surveillance and monitoring for lead poisoning, end support to state and local lead prevention programs, and exacerbate health disparities in low-income children of color. Cuts like these make no sense and are certainly not cost effective, especially when history has shown that policies limiting lead exposure are instrumental for a healthy nation.
Lead poisoning is devastating. It severely impairs the body, especially the nervous system, and is especially damaging to kids, whose brains are still developing. Lead reduces their ability to concentrate, learn, and rest. Even low levels of exposure over time affect kids’ physical and mental development, lowering IQs, slowing body growth, and causing behavioral problems. With poor diet, the effects are even greater, and getting rid of lead requires arduous, painful treatment, although even this doesn’t reverse existing damage. Lead affects all children but it doesn’t affect all children equally: Studies show that African American children are nearly three times as likely to experience lead poisoning as their Caucasian peers; low-income children are two times as likely experience lead poisoning as more affluent kids.
Lead poisoning is devastating. It severely impairs the body, especially the nervous system, and is especially damaging to kids, whose brains are still developing. Lead reduces their ability to concentrate, learn, and rest. Even low levels of exposure over time affect kids’ physical and mental development, lowering IQs, slowing body growth, and causing behavioral problems. With poor diet, the effects are even greater, and getting rid of lead requires arduous, painful treatment, although even this doesn’t reverse existing damage. Lead affects all children but it doesn’t affect all children equally: Studies show that African American children are nearly three times as likely to experience lead poisoning as their Caucasian peers; low-income children are two times as likely experience lead poisoning as more affluent kids.
Prior to the 1970s, our environment was saturated with lead: it was in paint, gasoline, and cookware, as well as in water and soil. Thousands of children were being poisoned, especially kids from lower-income communities who were more likely to live in homes where the paint was peeling, or alongside freeways, breathing in lead dust and playing in contaminated soil. Educating people about lead poisoning prevention was important, but it wasn’t enough on its own.
Politicians and lobbyists in the petroleum and chemical industries lined up on the side of profits, putting bright paint over bright kids—not because they have something against kids, but because ‘business as usual’ is expedient, profitable and pioneering change is difficult. Prevention advocates and communities formed coalitions and worked together to change national policy - despite corporations downplaying the problem and lobbyist attempts to derail these efforts. After years of community organizing and political pressure, Congress passed sweeping legislation that removed some key sources of lead from the environment. As a result, community exposure to lead decreased, and the number of lead poisoning cases has drastically reduced. And we’ve saved money as well as lives: a recent CDC analysis suggests that every dollar spent to reduce lead hazards shows from $17 up to a $220 return on investment.
A quarter of a million kids (and their families, schools, our healthcare system and workplaces) continue to suffer from preventable lead poisoning in the U.S. today as a result of residual lead toxicity from previous generations and other exposures that aren’t well regulated. Cuts to the CDC’s lead prevention programs assure that numbers will rise dramatically. These cuts won’t reduce our national deficit. Without prevention funds, more children will get sick and injured from preventable, predictable causes, which in turn drives up healthcare costs. We know how to prevent lead poisoning and how to minimize its impact. Allies are urging that you call or write a letter to your Senators and Representatives, [link http://capwiz.com/nchh/home/] asking them to support restoration of the CDC Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program in the FY 2013 Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations bill to their previous FY 2011 level of $29.257 million.
History has shown that we need to focus on changing the community conditions that determine lead exposure. It’s neither humane nor cost effective to address the immediate environment of lead-contaminated homes or rely on treatment, after a poisoning diagnosis, when we know how to prevent lead poisoning in the first place. We have to cultivate a new way of thinking and acting up front: identifying clues that point to things that need improving in the environment – and the CDC Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Programs helps communities do just that.
