Anyone with children should know about the dangers of lead - How little it takes to elevate the lead content in a child and the horrible consequences of lead poisoning. But, even though we all realize these dangers and have been working for decades to lower the risks to American children - we have 2 news items today that again illustrate how Republicans put corporate greed over people, children and even the unborn:
EPA: Leaded gas may return, along with lower standards
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is considering doing away with health standards that cut lead from gasoline, widely regarded as one of the nation's biggest clean-air accomplishments...Battery makers, lead smelters, refiners all have lobbied the administration to do away with the Clean Air Act limits.
The drug companies are probably as excited to hear about this as battery makers, since 1/3 ADHD cases have been linked to lead. As lead levels rise in our enviroment not only will we see a drop in the next generations IQ but more medicated kids. Of course, all children won't be fortunate enough to get away with mild lead poisoning and they will live a lifetime crippled or worse.
At high levels of exposure, a child may become mentally retarded, fall into a coma, and even die from lead poisoning. Within the last ten years, children have died from lead poisoning in New Hampshire and in Alabama. Lead poisoning has also been associated with juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior.
This is bad news for our kids. The second news story is from Ohio and isn't much better:
Lame duck GOP legislature offers early Christmas gift to manufacturers of poisonous lead paint
State Rep. Mike Foley, D-Cleveland, expressed deep sadness this morning at legislation now streaking to the floor of the Ohio House of Representatives that would effectively immunize paint manufacturers from legal liability from their decision to sell lead paint they knew for decades was poisonous to children.
How sick. Protecting corporations that knew they were hurting people but still continued to produce and promote harmful products to trusting consumers.
Foley is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which voted last night – over Democratic objections – to insert the gift to lead paint manufacturers and other anti-consumer language into Senate Bill 117, a largely-unrelated proposal. S.B. 117 has been scheduled for a vote of the full House today in the waning days of the 126th General Assembly.
Foley has a deep understanding of the physical and mental harm lead paint continues to cause children. Before his appointment to the House of Representatives in May, Foley served as executive director of the Cleveland Tenants Organization, which helped renters contend with the overwhelming challenge of poisonous lead paint in old homes.
Foley warned today that by protecting lead paint manufacturers, the General Assembly would be shifting the burden of making homes safe for Ohio children to taxpayers or landlords and tenants who are struggling to meet the challenges of today’s economy in some of Ohio’s oldest neighborhoods.
"I’m struck that in an era where so much is made about personal responsibility, we are rushing legislation which basically gives a free pass to corporations that sold a product they knew poisoned children," Foley said today.
"This bill sends a message to one of the major polluters in our state: No matter what harm you’ve contributed to, no matter how much knowledge you had regarding the ill effects your product created, we will not hold you responsible or accountable for those damages.
"It’s lucky the tobacco companies didn’t have it this good," Foley said.
S.B. 117 would protect lead paint companies from liability by changing Ohio law so that paint companies may only be held responsible when paint in a given home can be linked to a given manufacturer. There is no known scientific method for definitively linking paint applied to a home decades ago to a specific manufacturer.
For that reason, lawsuits put forward by cities in Ohio and in other states have taken a different legal approach, known as a nuisance lawsuit with market share liability. In March, the state of Rhode Island won a lawsuit against three paint manufacturers that would require them to clean up more than 300,000 homes and, potentially, billions of dollars in damages.
S.B. 117 would close the doors of Ohio courthouses to this approach, leaving cities, the state or landlords and tenants to struggle with the challenge of cleaning up lead paint in old homes. Foley said clean up typically costs anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 per home.
"The city of Cleveland was lucky if it could find the dollars to abate 20 homes a year. That’s a drop in the bucket," Foley said. "This bill basically puts the burden for lead paint remediation on those who are already struggling to make ends meet, instead of on the industry that created the problem."
Aren't our representatives supposed to do what is best for us? This Ohio bill is a double whammy. It says to corporations "Not only is it Okay that you hurt our kids, we'll let the taxpayers pick up the bill for you". Sick.