I mean, freaking lead paint. That's like a half-century of "Yeah, this stuff can hurt fetuses and children, so we need to try and keep them from getting exposed to it" environmental and consumer and medical wisdom being whittled away by Trump with the support of the … the remodeling industry. Lead paint has been banned from household use since 1978, but the remodelers aren't happy with programs that require training and special care be given when dealing with house construction when lead paint is present.[1]
The program changes are ostensibly "intended" to devolve responsibility for treatment of lead paint during remodeling down to the states — but also chop away federal funding already being given to the states to enforce their own regulations. Which seems to be fine by the vested interests here:
'But the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, which represents some of the industry’s biggest players, welcomed the plan to abolish the two programs. The association’s chief executive, Fred Ulreich, said in a statement that the group “has long supported moving” the Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program “from EPA down to the individual states. […] Ulreich said in his statement that his group “believes that the program can be better run and enforcement can be more vigorous the closer it is to the local contractors.”
But Ulreich added that the group would object to states who seek to run a lead “abatement program.” The group has successfully delayed a program in Maryland that goes further than the current federal requirements when it comes to lead paint removal.'
Freaking lead paint. Jeez.
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[1] When we had a contractor doing remodeling work in our basement, they had to do special testing of the wall paint and other locations to confirm that the finish work down down there by the original owner was safe. Did this cost extra money? Yes. Did I feel personally offended that I had to pay extra money to do federally-mandated testing to ensure that lead paint dust wouldn't be wafting about our house during the remodel? Not for a moment.
Trump’s EPA moves to dismantle programs that protect kids from lead paint
Environmental Protection Agency officials are proposing to eliminate two programs focused on curbing the environmental dangers lead paint poses to children.
The GOP dream to roll the country back to 09/05/1901 continues unabated.
I was prompted by this to see what the situation is in Australia. Apparently, although lead-based paint is now prohibited, there are no laws on dealing with existing applications of it.
There's an Australian Standard and plenty of advice from various sources on dealing with it, but there's no enforcement.
There you go, you
arewere ahead of us.Yeah, but the money saved by cutting these programs could easily cover one or two crucial golfing trips at the private club.
Priorities, you know?
+Michael Verona As noted elseblog, the cost of replacing the Tomahawks lobbed at Syria yesterday would more than pay for a year or five of these programs.
(Which isn't to comment one way or the other on the Syrian attack, just on what sort of governmental spending gets scrutiny by this administration and what does not.)