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05.23.2002
All in favor of lead-paint bill
BY PETER B. LORD
Journal Environment Writer
Senate unanimously OKs measure holding landlords liable
PROVIDENCE -- Amid congratulatory speeches and applause, the state Senate voted unanimously yesterday to approve Sen. Thomas J. Izzo's newest lead-paint reform legislation. The new bill is far tougher than earlier versions, and has much more support.
The bill could affect just about anyone involved with older houses painted with lead pigments that can poison small children. It requires insurance companies to cover lead-paint liability. It removes liability protection from landlords. It requires the state Health Department to find and take action against landlords who cause multiple poisonings.
And the legislation sets safety standards, which homeowners may voluntarily meet, to prevent more poisonings. (Last year, 2,832 Rhode Island children had lead levels high enough to be considered poisoned.)
The legislation still must win support in the House, which has killed other Izzo lead bills four years in a row. But this year there's a big change -- Izzo's harshest past critics now support his revised bill.
Just hours before the Senate vote, a crucial meeting was held involving Izzo, Senate policy aide Kenneth Payne and an array of advocates for lead-paint victims and the poor.
Last year, the advocates opposed Izzo's bill because they thought it wasn't tough enough on landlords who let their properties poison children. Trial lawyers also were opposed because the bill protected many landlords from lawsuits by victims.
This year, Izzo incorporated many of the changes the advocates wanted. Only one minor snag remained.
The advocates said they wanted to clarify a paragraph that would prohibit landlords from retaliating against tenants who complain of lead problems.
Izzo agreed to make that change, too.
So late yesterday afternoon, he stalled on the Senate floor while aides prepared and distributed the amendment sought by the victims' advocates. The amendment passed unanimously, too.
Then the kudos began.
One senator after another rose to congratulate Izzo, saying they hope this will be the year the House finally passes a lead bill.
"There are very few like you who have worked so hard," said Sen. Aram G. Garabedian, D-Cranston. "I consider you one of the most dedicated legislators I've met in my 10 years here."
"I think this year he deserves to win," said Sen. June Gibbs, R-Middletown.
"This is good public policy. Thank you for sticking with it," said J. Clement Cicilline, D-Newport.
Afterward, Elizabeth Colon, a spokeswoman for the Childhood Lead Action Project (CLAP), talked about the deadline decision to support the bill.
"We're happy because we see this as a real victory," Colon said. "Everything we've fought for in the last four years is in this bill. It's tougher on landlords. It protects the rights of children. It incorporates the right to know provisions we wanted -- so that other tenants in a building must be notified if a child is poisoned."
Vincent Greene said he and Robert McConnell, two of the state's most active lawyers representing lead-poisoning victims, support the bill, too.
"I am hesitant to speak for all trial lawyers," Greene said. "But a lot of the proposals that we made and CLAP made are in this bill. Everybody who stood up last year and took heat for objecting to the previous bill deserves credit for this one."
During the Senate session, Izzo praised Brown Prof. Harold Ward and his students for doing study after study pinpointing which landlords were causing more poisonings.
He thanked Payne and such advocacy groups as CLAP, Rhode Island Kids Count, the HELP Lead Safe Center and state agencies such as the Department of Health and the Department of Business Regulation.
"I hope this is the last session that I need to be telling you about all this," Izzo said. "Hopefully, we'll see some real change in our ability to protect young people in this state from the dangers of lead poisoning."
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