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Statement of Need: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Academy of Sciences have labeled lead poisoning as the leading environmental health hazard facing America's children. Childhood lead exposure has been shown to cause damage to the brain and nervous system which causes behavior and learning problems; reduced IQ; slowed growth; hearing problems; hypertension and heart disease; reproductive problems for both men and women; kidney damage; and many other adverse health effects, in some cases even seizures coma, and death. These effects result in increased medical care costs, increased special education costs, and decreased lifetime earnings. The reductions in IQ appear to be irreversible, and because lead is stored primarily in bone, internal exposures can occur for decades, even if environmental exposures are controlled. ^PThe results of CDC's third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicate that population blood lead levels have continued to decrease dramatically as a result of the de-leading of gasoline and the elimination of lead in solder in food canning, as well as the ban on lead in household paint (which was effective in 1978). Nevertheless, CDC found that during the period 1991-1994, 4.4 percent of all American children aged 1-5, or 930,000 children, had blood lead levels greater than the CDC level of concern (10 ug/dl). CDC has concluded that the most serious remaining sources of lead exposure are lead in deteriorated paint in older housing and dust and soil contaminated by paint and residues from past emissions of leaded gasoline. These sources must be controlled to assure continued declines in childhood lead poisoning. ^PThe prevalence of elevated blood lead levels is statistically associated with low family income, older housing, and African-American or Mexican-American race/ethnicity. For instance, approximately 8.6 percent of children aged 1-5 living in housing built before 1946 had elevated blood lead levels during the 1991-1994 period, compared to 4.4 percent for all children of that age. For children in low income families living in pre-1946 housing, the percentage was 16.4; and among non-Hispanic black children living in pre-1946 housing, the percentage was 21.9.

Summary of the Legal Basis: Title X amends the Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act (42 USC 4822) to focus attention and resources on identifying and controlling lead-based paint hazards in federally assisted and federally owned housing before children are poisoned.

Alternatives: The statute is generally prescriptive in requiring regulatory action to be taken by HUD. For certain HUD programs the Department has some discretion in the level of hazard evaluation and control measures to be undertaken. Alternatives being considered are related primarily to: (1) the amount of on-site work that is required for hazard evaluation and control; (2) targeting by year of construction; and (3) likelihood of occupancy by families with children.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits: The Department has estimated the present value of some of the major benefits of protecting children from lead exposure that would flow from first-year activities required under the regulations proposed on June 7, 1996. These quantified benefits included increased lifetime earnings associated with higher IQs for children with lower blood lead levels, and avoided costs of special education and medical treatment. Estimated benefits also included market-value increases resulting from housing renovation associated with lead-based paint hazard controls. Using a three percent discount rate for lifetime earnings, total estimated benefits were approximately $1.5 billion; using a seven percent rate, the estimate was approximately $500 million. Costs of activities that would be newly required in the first year of the proposed regulations were estimated at approximately $460 million, for a net benefit of over $1 billion using a three percent discount rate and $40 million using seven percent. ^PAdditional possible benefits not included in these estimates are: reduced infant mortality; reduced hypertension; improvements to children's stature, hearing and vitamin D metabolism; reductions in juvenile delinquency and the burden on the educational system; avoidance of the parental and family time expense and emotional costs of caring for poisoned children; and reductions in personal injury claims and court cases. ^PThis analysis may be modified for the final rule.

Risks: Without the regulatory changes required by title X, childhood lead exposures will continue at or near current levels.