State can’t enforce lead ban

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

The Department of Human Services, which licenses child care centers, bans the use of lead-based paints but isn't capable of enforcing the ban.

Kathleen Stanley, deputy director of the Department of Human Services, said her department was unaware of a limited 1997 Health Department survey that discovered that 71 of the state's 442 license child care centers had a lead paint exposure risks.

Thomas Lileikis, environmental health specialist, said the 1997 voluntary confidential survey was conducted as part of a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to help his department develop a lead training and certification abatement program.

He said 203 of the state's 422 licensed child car centers participated in the survey.

Of those surveyed, 71 child care centers, or 35 percent, were found to have lead exposure problems.

However, Lileikis said there were no dangers to children who attended 71 child care centers and who may have been exposed to lead paint.

He said all of the child care centers surveyed were asked if they ever experienced problems with lead paint poisoning and "they all came up zero."

Every child care center that participated in the survey was given a report of the health department's findings and recommendations, Lileikis added.

"All of the child care centers were very receptive."

Stanley said her department believes it is up to the health department to conduct periodic lead paint inspections of child care centers, and state officials will meet later today to determine why there was a never follow up to the 1997 study.

She said the Human Services Department has the power to suspend or revoke the license of a child care center if no corrective action is taken.

In the case of the 1997 study, Stanley doesn't know why the health department was never informed of the results or if the actions taken by the child care centers were adequate.

"We want to ensure that whatever is done is reasonable and prudent for protection of the children," Stanley said. Lead-based paint was outlawed for use in residential homes by the federal government in 1978, Lileikis said.

Its use also was banned in public playgrounds on slides and other equipment. In 1997, the National Safety Council reported that three quarters of the nation's housing stock built before 1978 (approximately 64 million dwellings) contained some lead-based paint. Lead poisoning can lead to permanent damage to the brain and other organs.

"We were very pro-active," Lileikis added. "This was an educational process.... It was up to the child care centers then to determine what to do."