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5.24.2001
Lead-paint poisoning
hits home in Senate
• The
Senate passes a lead-paint protection bill as legislators tell how lead
poisoning affected their relatives and communities.
BY PETER B. LORD
Journal Environment Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- State senators described lead-paint poisonings in their families, their neighborhoods and their towns last night before voting overwhelmingly in favor of legislation that mandates a new strategy to stop the thousands of childhood lead poisonings that occur in Rhode Island each year.
This is the third year that lead paint legislation crafted by Sen. Thomas J. Izzo, D-Cranston, cleared the Senate. The vote was 46 to 1. The last two years it died in the House, but Izzo said he was more hopeful of success there this year.
Many senators talked about their personal experiences with lead poisonings and praised Izzo for working for years to write a complex new law that would encourage landlords to clean up their properties.
Sen. Thomas R. Coderre, D-Pawtucket, said his mother runs a shelter for the homeless, many of whom are there because their houses are filled with lead. He described visiting a young relative in the hospital and seeing in the next bed a 5-year-old victim of lead poisoning. "He could barely speak. It broke my heart."
Sen. J. Clement Cicilline, D-Newport, said his grandson had elevated lead levels that caused the entire family to be taken aback. The grandson has improved, he said, but "it would be totally irresponsible to turn our backs on this issue."
State Sen. Elizabeth H. Roberts, D-Cranston, said her children escaped with very low levels, but she lives in a neighborhood "that has significant lead issues."
Sen. Majority Leader William V. Irons, who rose to support the bill with dozens of others, said "for this law to be denied year after year is an insult to the children of our society.
"To think in the year 2001 we have to be afraid of children getting poisoned and brain damaged from lead paint in their homes is outrageous."
Last year nearly 3,000 young children in Rhode Island were lead poisoned. Experts say most of the lead comes from the deteriorating lead paint that was applied to most of Rhode Island's older houses. The biggest impact is on toddlers who ingest lead dust and chips that they pick up on their hands or inhale. Lead causes learning and behavior problems.
A law passed in 1991 mandates the screening of young children, but only requires the state to intercede with landlords and mandate cleanups after children are poisoned. Izzo said his bill focuses on prevention, rather than reaction. It provides more lead-education programs, offers easier cleanup standards so more homes can comply and requires a statewide plan to coordinate prevention efforts. His bill protects landlords who comply with cleanup standards by severely limiting their liability from lawsuits.
The only objection to the bill came from state Sen. David V. Igliozzi, D-Providence, who introduced an amendment that would strip legal protections for landlords and allow the families of lead-poisoning victims to sue for unlimited damages.
Igliozzi said Izzo's bill dealt with everyone but the children because it limits their ability to sue. He told the story of U.S. Rep. James Langevin, who was paralyzed in a gun accident while he was a teen, and later rose through the political ranks at the State House and on to Congress. Langevin would not have been able to succeed if he had been barred from suing for damages, said Igliozzi, a lawyer.
"The intent of this bill is great. I support the intent," Igliozzi said. "But let's not eliminate the victims in this bill."
Izzo responded that Igliozzi's amendment was more important to tort lawyers than children. And that comment drew an angry response from Sen. John M. Roney, D-Providence, who also is a lawyer.
Roney said he resented Izzo's implication that a legislator who is a lawyer would act to "line his pockets" rather than work in the interests of children. Many product safety improvements have resulted from lawsuits, he said.
Izzo apologized and said he didn't like the implication that his legislation fails to help children. Its purpose is to provide doable and affordable strategies to make properties lead safe so children don't get poisoned and there's no need to file damage suits.
The amendment failed by a vote of 6 to 39.
Several parent advocacy groups and environmental groups opposed Izzo's bill in committee for the same reasons raised by Igliozzi.
But Izzo said his bill doesn't protect landlords who willingly or knowingly harm children.
Roney said the Izzo bill might be only the first step, if it doesn't work.
"I rise to send a warning to Rhode Island landlords," Roney said. "Take advantage of this bill. This bill is the carrot. This bill gives you the opportunity to take the lead out of your house. It gives you the opportunity to do in the next several years what you should have done long ago. If you don't do it, we will be back."
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