01:00 AM EST on Saturday, December 3, 2005

BY BRANDIE JEFFERSON
Journal Environment Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Enforcement of the new Lead Hazard Mitigation Law Act would be sufficient to deal with the problem of lead poisoning in Rhode Island, the former state health director testified yesterday.

The law, which went into effect Nov. 1, requires most people who own properties built before 1978 -- the year lead paint was banned -- to have their houses certified as lead safe.

During her final day of testimony in Superior Court before Judge Michael A. Silverstein in the state's trial against companies that made and sold lead-based paint, Dr. Patricia Nolan said that there were about 150 certified lead inspectors in the state and that they could inspect three or four houses a day.

The inspectors are trained by the state Health Department and can certify properties as "lead-safe," meaning that even if they have lead paint, it is intact and poses no immediate threat to children.

In addition to certified lead inspectors, certified lead technicians can also perform the specific inspections required by the mitigation law. According to Sydavong Simon Kue, resources coordinator at the Housing and Resources Commission, there are about 200 people qualified to do lead-safe inspections.

Other state outreach and screening programs have also been effective, Nolan told Neil F. X. Kelly, the state's lawyer.

"The state decline in the average blood-lead levels are actually, in large part, a result of these programs."

Nolan told the jury that the new mitigation law would be a welcome change from the old way the state identified houses with lead hazards: finding a child who had already been poisoned.