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Three Ohio Counties Benefit from Latest Round of Federal Funding to Remove Toxic Lead Paint

Sandusky in Erie County, OH
Ken Winters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Libra
Aerial View of Sandusky

Three northeast Ohio counties are among twenty-three locations around the U.S. chosen to be part of a $53-million-dollar, federal lead-paint cleanup program.  Erie, Mahoning and Summit counties will get s$7.5  million over three years.  The money is to help with the decontamination of a total of 305 currently-occupied, old houses. 

Peter Schrade (center)
Credit Erie County Health Department
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Erie County Health Department
Peter Schade (center), Erie County Health Commissioner - with Board Chair Linda Miller-Moor and State Senator Randy Gardner

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development  initiative is the latest round of a decades-long national effort to get rid of the toxic paint additive.  

Erie County HealthCommissioner Peter Schade says continuing the clean-up in lake-shore communities is especially important because the resort-based employment there means old houses tend to stay in active use, by active families.

“With that older housing stock we’ve had a problem with lead-based paint.  And on top of that, we have a sixty-two-to-sixty-five percent tenant’s occupancy rate.  So, a lot of older homes, with a lot of people who rent, have kinds, as you could image.”

Children exposed to lead contamination have been shown to suffer neurological damage, among other health problems.  The latest HUD grants are for three years.  

The sale of lead-based paint was banned in the United States in 1978.