By the numbers

Lead poisoning

1: Rank of lead among environmental health threats to Maine’s children, due to lead paint in older homes

13: Where Maine ranks among all states in amount of old housing stock

79: Percentage of Maine homes built before the 1978 ban on lead paint

20,000: Number of Maine infants and toddlers that may be exposed each year to harmful levels of lead

$5.4 million: Amount of federal grant money the Maine State Housing Authority and the cities of Lewiston and Auburn no longer had available in 2004 to clean up lead hazards in low-income housing, because of federal cuts.

Sources: Environmental Health Strategy, Portland; www.preventharm.org