Healthy Homes, Safe Children, Happy Families

What a difference a year makes. Last year, the Maryland General Assembly passed – and Governor O’Malley signed – key pieces of legislation aimed at further protecting our state’s children from the tragic consequences of lead poisoning. As they have done many times, Maryland leaders helped set the standard for other states to follow in regard to lead poisoning prevention.

Sadly, this kind of courage and leadership are lacking this year. Many of the bills currently in front of the House of Delegates Environmental Matters Committee related to lead will provide the rest of the nation with a blueprint for what not to do. There are bills being considered this year that, if implemented, will undermine the progress we have made and put thousands of Maryland’s children and families at risk.

We have made enormous headway in Maryland over the past two decades to reduce the rates of childhood lead poisoning by 98% (based on previous CDC guidelines of 10 µg/dl) by focusing on primary prevention and common sense legislation that provides protection for our children while not imposing undue burdens on property owners. The bills sponsored this year by Delegates Niemann, Stein, and Beidle, in particular, threaten to reverse this trend line, putting the interests of property owners and landlords above the interests of children.

Here’s just a sample of what some of our elected officials are trying to do this year to undermine efforts to eradicate childhood lead poisoning:

• One bill (HB924) will actually overturn a piece of legislation passed last year (HB644) that all but one of the sponsors voted to support that requires rental properties built between 1950 and 1977 to receive lead treatment, inspection and educational information. (NOTE: 60% of children poisoned in Maryland live in rental properties constructed in this period.)
• HB923 sets lead poisoned children up as a “separate class” and creates a new hurdle for lead poisoned children to overcome in order to seek compensation for the damages they suffer in housing with lead hazards;
• HB754 proposes to reinstate practices that have been deemed unconstitutional by the Maryland Supreme Court (the “Qualified Offer”), undermine the Fair Housing Act and privacy protections afforded to families by federal law, and impose a predetermined value on the life of a lead poisoned child.

We encourage you to read more about the impact of these ill-conceived pieces of legislation and contact your state delegate and senator and urge them to vote “no.”

More information about the bills noted above, as well as the bills we and our advocacy partners support, is available at here.