Lead‑paint help continues

A Batavia-based lead program is staying in place, extending help for GLOW residents who need old homes tested and repaired for lead-paint hazards. (thedailynewsonline.com) The Daily News reported the federal Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes grant was renewed for three more years. Genesee County says the program serves eligible properties in Genesee and Orleans counties and uses pre-approved, Environmental Protection Agency-certified contractors for lead-safe work. (thedailynewsonline.com) (geneseeny.gov) The county says the grant applies to homes built before 1978 where lead-based paint is present and a child under 6 lives or regularly visits, or an expectant mother lives there. Owner-occupied homes do not require a financial match, while landlords must contribute 10% of project costs. (geneseeny.gov) Lead paint remains a housing problem because the federal ban on lead-based household paint did not take effect until 1978, leaving older housing stock as the main source of exposure. Genesee County says lead was also phased out of gasoline after 1973 and eliminated there by 1996, but old paint and dust still keep the risk inside homes. (geneseeny.gov) The local program sits inside a broader set of housing-health efforts run through GO Health, the Genesee and Orleans County health departments. County materials list lead hazard reduction grants, childhood lead poisoning prevention work across the GLOW region, and Batavia home visits aimed at hazards including asthma triggers, fire risks and lead exposure. (geneseeny.gov) Federal housing policy is built around that same older-home problem. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says its lead hazard grants are designed to identify and control lead-based paint hazards in pre-1978 housing and to support local contractor capacity to do the work. (hud.gov) A separate paint case in southern England shows the problem can extend beyond walls and windowsills. Dorset Council said on April 15 that large containers of liquid waste were dumped on the A35 near Bloxworth and Morden, with the substance leaking into a roadside drainage channel and prompting a specialist cleanup. (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk) Dorset Echo later reported the spill involved an estimated 6,000 litres of suspected paint-type waste in six industrial bulk containers and could cost Dorset Council about £16,000 to clear. The council said the material was not household waste and would not have been accepted at a household recycling centre. (dorsetecho.co.uk) (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk) Back in western New York, the immediate task is less dramatic and more familiar: find the lead, contain the dust, and fix the surfaces before children are exposed. The renewed grant means that work will keep going in the region’s oldest homes for another three years. (thedailynewsonline.com) (geneseeny.gov)