AUGUSTA — A new state lead-poisoning standard passed into law in 2015 is sitting in limbo, according to lawmakers and advocates who say Maine should move quickly on the change to better protect children from exposure to the neurotoxin.

The change, based on legislation sponsored by Sen. Amy Volk, R-Scarborough, and Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, would see Maine match the federal blood-level standard for lead poisoning of 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood. Maine’s current standard is 15 micrograms per deciliter.

Based on the latest science, the measure was broadly supported by both Democrats and Republicans, including Lewiston’s conservative Mayor Robert Macdonald, who testified in support of the change last year.

Greg Payne of Maine Affordable Housing Coalition said he hoped the state’s Department of Health and Human Services would have moved more quickly to implement the change and questioned the lack of urgency around what many see as a significant public health risk.

In 2013, the latest data available from the Maine CDC, there were 169 children with blood-lead levels between 5 and 9 micrograms per deciliter of blood, with 15 of those cases in Lewison and two in Auburn. But estimates based on the new standard show that statewide, the number could grow to 553 with 106 cases in Lewiston and another 30 in Auburn.

Payne said recent events in Flint, Mich., and lead poisoning in the city’s water supply there should serve as a wake-up call for Maine officials on the issue and prompt them to action.

“There’s not a sense of urgency going on here,” Payne said. “And I feel like one of the lessons we are learning out of Flint right now is that lead exposure is a big deal and it has severe consequences for the health and well-being of kids and their education and their futures. I think one of the lessons is, it can’t be treated casually; it has to be dealt with urgently.”

Volk said Monday she learned part of the delay was that the Maine Center for Disease Control, an agency within DHHS, had drafted the new rules but there were errors in that draft that needed correction.

Volk said the new rule will give Maine the toughest lead-poisoning standard in the nation; in the meantime, the state’s previous standards remain in place. Volk said implementing a standard that would lead the nation may take a little time.

“The effects are irreversible and it would be nice to start using this additional funding to abate buildings where there are problems,” Volk said. “It also gives the department increased authority to crack down on landlords who have been ordered to abate buildings and are not. So I think they would want to start doing that as well.” 

Rotundo said the legislation leading to the new standard included resources for the Maine CDC to increase its staff and an additional $1 million a year in funding to help property owners and landlords remove or abate the sources of lead in a child’s environment.

The new, lower blood-level standard means more children — and, subsequently, more apartments and homes — will be identified as having a lead problem that will need to be remedied, Rotundo said.

“The stricter the standards are, the more children you will protect,” Rotundo said. “So the longer it takes us to put those strict standards in place, the greater the possibility will be that more children will be negatively impacted. I think if this were a top priority, it could move along very quickly.”

Rotundo also said the events in Michigan should make Maine health officials step up the pace of implementing the new lead standards.

“This has been very much on people’s minds because (of) what’s been happening in Flint,” Rotundo said. “The tragic situation in Flint has really called attention to this public health issue. So I hope the administration can resolve this very soon.”

John Martins, a spokesman for the Maine CDC, wrote in an email message Monday the agency was currently working on implementing the new standards and would formally propose the new rules soon.

sthistle@sunjournal.com

DANGER: Lead Paint

A six-month Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting investigation into the lingering problem of lead poisoning in Maine:

• Childhood lead poisoning may not be in the news so much, but it’s still the No.1 health hazard for children. 
• Maine braces for hundreds more reported cases of lead poisoning in 2015 after the state adjusts lead levels that trigger a diagnosis.
• A law designed to protect homeowners from lead is almost never enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency 
• How to handle lead paint ‘on the job’
• Rates of lead poisoning are down in most of Maine’s largest cities, but remain stubbornly high in Lewiston and Auburn 
• Lewiston’s Somalis find lead poisoning in homes