Biden admin targets lead exposure

By Ellie Borst | 02/26/2024 01:32 PM EST

The two memorandums of understanding are aimed at reducing lead-based paint exposure in homes and increasing data sharing.

A child who has high levels of lead in their blood walk past a peeling lead paint wall.

A child who has high levels of lead in their blood walks past a peeling lead paint wall July 25, 2003, in their apartment in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The Biden administration announced two new multi-agency efforts to address lead exposure concerns. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The Biden administration advanced its crackdown on lead contamination with the announcement Monday of two multi-agency agreements to get more lead paint out of homes and increase data sharing about which communities are most at risk.

The first memorandum of understanding — between EPA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development — updates and reaffirms a 1997 agreement between the two agencies on their coordinated efforts to enforce lead-based paint standards in housing.
first memorandum of understanding

The second MOU — among EPA Region 3, HUD and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — initiates a pilot program that shares data on which communities have the highest blood lead levels.
second MOU

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“HUD has a particular interest in using the shared data to facilitate its engagement with state and local lead hazard control programs, healthy homes programs, and housing rehabilitation programs, for the purposes of improving its targeting of funding, conducting special projects, or other collaborations,” Matthew Ammon, director of HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, said in a statement.

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