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6.26.2001
Lead
paint makers draw landlords into legal fray
• Targeted
in a lawsuit by Atty. Gen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the manufacturers launch
a salvo to force him to identify every property in the state where lead
is a nuisance.
BY PETER B.
LORD
Journal Environment Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The nation's major paint companies
moved yesterday to name what may turn out to be tens of thousands of Rhode
Island landlords as defendants in the state's multibillion-dollar lead
paint lawsuit.
The companies filed a so-called "third-party complaint" late yesterday
in Superior Court that adds the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance
Corporation, as well as the owners of every property where lead paint
is considered to be a nuisance, as defendants to Atty. Gen. Sheldon Whitehouse's
lawsuit.
The paint companies plan to demand that Whitehouse identify every property
in the state where lead is a nuisance. There has never been a systematic
survey of the state's housing for lead problems, so it may be impossible
for Whitehouse to readily generate such a list.
But experts have pointed out that about half of the state's 415,000 housing
units were built before 1978, when lead paint was banned, so many of those
properties could be targeted by yesterday's actions. (RIHMFC was named
because it has managed low-income housing programs.)
Charles Moellenberg, a paint company attorney, said yesterday the new
complaint "is aimed at putting responsibility on the property owners who
have created a nuisance, if there is any. It puts responsibility where
it belongs. It's not properly put on former manufacturers of lead pigment,
who stopped making that product years ago."
Whitehouse responded that the paint companies were using a "public relations
gimmick" to try to divert responsibility for creating the lead-paint problem
that poisons thousands of Rhode Island children each year.
"This latest public relations stunt is yet another attempt by the lead
paint manufacturers to divert attention from the fact that they refuse
to take responsibility for their actions and clean up their mess," Whitehouse
said. "Perhaps the real reason they are taking this diversionary tactic
is to provide a morale booster for their stockholders by trying to lay
the blame elsewhere."
But Moellenberg said yesterday's legal action makes common sense. Lead
paint is safe, if properly maintained, he said. The lead poisoning rate
is high in Rhode Island, he said, because the state has a weak, poorly
enforced law and landlords don't maintain their properties.
The legal action comes as the General Assembly is scheduled to hear testimony
today on a controversial bill designed to clean up properties made hazardous
by lead paint.
State Sen. Thomas Izzo announced yesterday that after working through
the weekend and taking suggestions from the state Health Department, the
Childhood Lead Action Project (CLAP) and the governor's office, he has
prepared a four-page amendment to his lead-reform bill that passed overwhelmingly
in the state Senate last month.
The House Finance committee has posted the bill for a hearing scheduled
to begin at 1 p.m. today at the State House.
The Conservation Law Foundation yesterday offered its "unequivocal" support
for the bill in a letter to House Speaker John B. Harwood. Such groups
as Rhode Island Kids Count, The Housing Network, Health and Education
Leadership for Providence and the HELP Lead Safe Center also are voicing
support.
CLAP has lined up several witnesses to argue against the bill. CLAP lobbyist
Suzanne Alden said Izzo has refused to meet with her group, which has
concerns about vague safety standards and limits on the ability of lead-poisoned
children to sue their landlords.
Izzo sent CLAP a letter late yesterday describing his amendment, which
he said he hoped would address some of CLAP's concerns. But Roberta Aaronson,
executive director of the advocacy group, said last night the letter hadn't
arrived by day's end, so she couldn't comment on the changes.
Whitehouse's lawsuit alleges that the paint companies created a nuisance
by manufacturing lead-based paints. Lead paint poisons children when they
ingest dust or chips from deteriorating paint surfaces. Lead causes a
wide range of nerve damage that leads to lowered intelligence and behavioral
problems.
Children in Rhode Island are poisoned at a rate 21/2 times the national
average. Children in Providence are poisoned at 4 times the national average.
Whitehouse wants the companies to pay for the costs of cleaning up the
lead paints, which some estimate could total billions of dollars.
In April, Superior Court Judge Michael A. Silverstein cleared the way
for the state to proceed with large parts of its case against eight paint
companies that marketed lead-based paint.
Moellenberg, the industry lawyer, said the fact that Silverstein allowed
Whitehouse to proceed with a nuisance claim is unprecedented.
"We believe the judge's decision is erroneous," he said. "But we take
the litigation very seriously and this is not a public relations stunt."
Whitehouse is suing Lead Industries Inc., American Cyanamid Co., Atlantic
Richfield Co., E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., The O'Brien Co., Glidden
Co., NL Industries Inc; SCM Chemicals and Sherwin-Williams Co.
Rhode Island is the first state in the nation to sue the paint companies,
and the suit's progress is being closely watched by big businesses and
by communities around the country that are struggling to deal with lead-paint
problems.
Digital Extra:
Read the Journal's six-part series on Rhode Island's lead-paint crisis,
and find resources on the topic, at:
http://projo.com/extra/lead/
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