Issue Position: Lead Paint Poisoning

Issue Position

Lead paint poisoning can damage a child for life, but it is preventable. The number of poisoned children has greatly declined since I worked with Governor Schaefer to enact a lead-risk reduction standard in 1994.

However, if landlords achieve that goal, they are no longer immune from liability because tenants are constitutionally entitled to their day in court, Maryland's highest court ruled this summer.

In response to this decision, we need to maintain the protections for tenants that have reduced lead poisoning among our children and prevent the abandonment of safe and affordable rental properties.

I have introduced House Bills 955, 977, and 1013. These bills would require the owner of a property with a resident who has as unacceptable lead level in his or her blood to replace all windows containing lead-based paint with new lead-free windows, require dust testing for certain properties, and create a grant program for owners of property that contains lead hazards and was built before 1978.

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