It’s time for elected officials to protect children from lead poisoning

Sometimes, elected officials in Delaware are able to make everyone on both sides of an issue happy. But other times, they need to choose sides. Unfortunately, the issue of protecting Delaware’s children from lead poisoning has become one of those issues where legislators must decide which side they are on.

Childhood lead poisoning is an enormous problem in Delaware. The state tests young children for elevated lead levels in their blood, and we know that hundreds of young children are newly diagnosed with elevated lead levels every year. My organization, the Latin American Community Center, recently had 25 young children tested, and 15 of them had elevated blood lead levels.

We know with certainty that lead has dreadful consequences for children – developmental delays, learning disabilities, even consequences that stretch into the teenage years, like interaction with the juvenile justice system. We also know with certainty one of the most effective things the state can do to reduce the number of children who suffer these consequences: Get rid of exposed lead paint in older homes. National research indicates that exposed lead paint is the top cause of childhood lead poisoning, and research in Delaware confirms that is the case here, too.

In the last quarter of 2024, the state conducted inspections of 17 homes where children had tested positive for elevated blood lead levels. Each and every one of the 17 homes had exposed lead paint. For well over a year, there has been a solution to this problem on the table. In December 2023, the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Advisory Committee issued a detailed report to the state recommending legislation that would require, over a period of years, the inspection of older rental units in Delaware for exposed lead paint, and the remediation of that lead paint in units where it was found. This is not a novel idea: Maryland, New Jersey and Philadelphia all have laws requiring remediation of exposed lead. Gov. John Carney and the Legislature allocated $2.5 million to assist in this effort, and Carney directed another $3 million to the same effort just a few months ago.

A bill implementing the committee’s recommendations was not introduced until just weeks before the end of the 2024 legislative session. Advocates were led to believe that the same bill would be introduced early in this year’s legislative session, allowing us to move forward with efforts to protect Delaware children. Instead, we were shocked to see a new bill introduced earlier this month (HB 70), with multiple changes designed to benefit landlords at the expense of children’s safety – including new provisions that would render the bill virtually unenforceable.

Legislators, and in particular the bill’s House sponsor, now have to make a choice. Will they allow hundreds of additional children a year in Delaware to continue getting lead poisoning, with all of the awful consequences it has for those children? Or will they stand up to the lobbyists representing landlords and insist that they make their properties safe for children? We will be watching closely to see which side our elected officials choose.