Lead Paint Controversy: Some Preliminary Notes

‘Lead Paint Problem Long Known’

         Written in 1997.

        The World-Herald article, “Lead-Poisoning Peril Gets New Attention,” (Dec. 15), comes more than three years after the Triple One Neighborhood Association and Parents Union exposed similar statistics regarding the polluting of north Omaha and more than 10 years after State Sen. Ernie Chambers and University of Nebraska Medical Center cancer physician Dr. Ercole Cavaleri warned of pollution because of the construction of the North Freeway.

          Lead poisoning, air pollution and soil contamination are all related because all three lead to health and social problems. All three problems can be addressed and overcome.

          The facts presented in the World-Herald article were long known, Someone should pay health reparations.

          If the city sat back and watched the bubonic plague spread in only a certain area of the community and never quarantined or educated the public, it would be held liable.

          How is this “plague” – lead poisoning – any different? It was spawned by man-made conditions (residential segregation, intentional neglect) and indeed, constitutes “a highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease.”

          Confined to low-income people and oolder parts of the city, lead-paint poisoning is a plague that should have been addressed as long as 25 years ago.

          Funds were available to address the lead-paint problem. One of the purposes of Community Development Block Grants, which Omaha has received since 1975, is to improve the lives and living conditions of residents whose poverty qualified this city for the grant money in the first place. My organization is primarily concerned about the 68111 ZIP code – the poorest area in the state outside of the Indian reservations.

          But a “triage” approach was used by those who saw the potential pollution problems but ignored them. Instead of saving the housing stock, air and soil in north Omaha, planners opted instead to take the development dollars to other parts of the community.

          I define “triage” as the practice of ignoring those areas recuperating on their own as well as those that may require help, while “bandaging” those favored areas and even helping those that area already “healthy.” So while north Omaha wheezed, coughed and smothered, money that could have repaired the problem went to those areas with healthy lungs.

          Triple One’s proposed North Omaha Protection Association, housed in the Blue Lion Center, would work with local government namely the City Health Department) and other community groups to offset the toxic pollutants which linger as a result of the razing of inner city housing.

          Area property managers and real estate companies would form a consortium that would raise funds to hire individuals to peel away paint and to point over hazardous lead sections of homes. Money for the manpower and paint could be matched with community development funds.

          The goal would be to save anywhere from 200 to 400 houses per year, houses that otherwise might be abandoned and later torn down, leaving behind unsightly lots, thereby further stigmatizing north Omaha.

          This proposal could include the hiring of 100 central city residents to provide the painting and other manpower needed.

          Another problem – “educational emotional duress” as a result of lead poisoning – is worth addressing. Those who inherited respiratory problems or related illnesses have had their life-chances, job potential and overall health quality severely infringed.

          How many school days were missed? How many kids died? How many work days did parents miss worrying about their young ones? How much was internalized and then passed down to subsequent generations?

          Triple One suggests that physical examinations be administered at the elementary school level. For too long OPS has made money by having kids in special programs, kids who generate extra money for the district. The only problem is that disproportionate numbers of these kids were black and placed there arbitrarily.

          The creation of the Lead Paint Academic Reassessment Survey would distinguish between those kids who are in special education for reasons related to lead paint. Those who are would be mainstreamed and have their special needs addressed case by case.

          More than $102 million came to Omaha in block grants since 1975, money which was funneled elsewhere and not used to address these problems.  Now, not only is there a housing shortage, but there is also a pollution of the spirit which accompanies negative health care.

          Health is a barometer of the quality of life. By upgrading the homes and taking charge of the issues themselves, central city residents would also experience a psychological benefit from this proposed plan.