AUGUSTA - New legislation that would establish renovation standards for older homes and create a voluntary lead-safe housing registry has drawn skepticism from landlords and Lewiston code enforcement officials.

"It's a noble thought," said Gil Arsenault, Lewiston's director of planning and code enforcement, of the voluntary registry, "but I don't know how well it's really going to work out."

Arsenault said it would be hard to convince landlords who own a significant number of apartments to pay for the inspections necessary to certify as lead-safe, especially for a voluntary registry.

"Lead-safe" means the home or building does not contain lead at a level that constitutes an environmental hazard, as pre-established by the state.

"It's pretty expensive if you are a landlord who's got 100 units and you've got to get somebody in to do testing on all of them," he said.

The bill, proposed by House Speaker Glenn Cummings, aims to reduce lead poisoning statewide.

It would require paint stores to display information about the risks posed by paint removal, create a voluntary lead-safe housing registry and call for a study to establish renovation standards for older homes and look for incentives to promote lead-safe housing.

About 55 percent of Maine's lead poisoning cases are the result of home renovations, said Cummings during testimony before the Health and Human Services Committee at a public hearing on Tuesday.

In fact, Cummings' son suffered from lead poisoning when he was 18 months old, prompting the Portland Democrat to take action.

"Nearly four years after our home renovations had been completed, the remaining lead dust was enough to poison my only child," Cummings said.

Annually, 550 Maine children are afflicted with lead poisoning, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control, and 87 percent of them live in pre-1950 housing.

Before 1950, the amount of lead in paint was as much as 50 percent by weight, according to the CDC.

Arsenault, the director of code enforcement in Lewiston, said Maine's housing stock is among the oldest in the country and Lewiston's downtown in particular has a lead problem.

"My guess is that a significant number of the tenement buildings in the downtown area probably have some lead paint somewhere," he said. "It is an issue."

But neither Lewiston nor Auburn, nor most other municipalities in the state, have any lead paint regulations on the books, Arsenault said.

"Very few communities have the teeth to deal with housing issues, let alone lead specifically," he said. "When Lewiston adopted its building code, it specifically deleted the provisions in that code dealing with lead because we saw it as a significant liability. If we say your buildings have to be lead safe, than we're basically accountable for making sure they are."

The potential cost of inspections and the stigma of not being a part of the proposed lead-safe housing registry has landlords upset.

John Royce, a lobbyist for the Maine Apartment Owners and Managers Association, said landlords are already struggling to maintain the current level of affordable housing for tenants, between the cost of heating oil and rising insurance costs.

"You set up a registry, but if you can't afford to meet certain criteria then you are kind of stigmatized," Royce said.

Arsenault said the best way to prevent lead poisoning was to stay informed.

"Tenants and homeowners can do a lot to protect their children just by cleaning," he said.