In the News

  • $5m for Lead Hazard Removal Included in Law Signed by Governor - $5m for Lead Hazard Removal Included in Law Signed by Governor Governor Patrick Quinn signed into law July 13th a statewide construction program that includes $5m to fund CLEAR-WIN, a loan and grant pilot program to assist residential property owners to reduce lead paint hazards primarily through window replacement. The law requires that where there is a lack of workers trained to remove lead-based paint hazards, job training programs must be initiated; it also seeks to provide incentives for contractors to do lead abatement work and protections for tenants to avoid increased rents. Communities eligible for the program will be selected based upon the prevalence of low-income families whose children are lead poisoned, the age of the housing stock, and other sources of funding available to the communities to address lead-based paint hazards. CLEAR-WIN was first passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 2007, subject to appropriation. This funding allows the program to get underway. An already established Statewide Advisory Council so-chaired by the Illinois Department of Public Health and by the Illinois Lead Safe Housing Task Force will oversee its implementation.
  • City Officials and Community Partners Unveil $12M Program to Protect Kids - A new program to reduce childhood lead poisoning will make more than $12 million available over the next two years to replace windows and address other lead hazards in approximately 2,000 affordable rental units or apartments with 4 or more units.
  • Study Links Lead Levels and SAT Scores - February 2009- A study to be published this winter in the journal Environmental Research suggests that the fall and rise of the average SAT math and verbal scores and variation in the prevalence of mental retardation between 1953 and 2003 can be closely tracked to the fall of blood lead levels. The author of the study, economist Rick Nevin, controlled for a number of factors that would depress scores. In his conclusion Nevin asserts that lead paint hazards in one's home is the greatest risk for childhood lead poisoning in the United States and that a simple window replacement strategy would yield lead hazard reduction benefits plus energy savings from efficient windows that far exceed window placement costs. Read the study. Read Lead Safe Illinois' stimulus package proposal involving window replacement.

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