House Bill 1043

Chair's Name: Judy Manning

Committee: Children & Youth

House Sponsor: Sharon Cooper

HB 1043 makes changes relating to lead poisoning and the steps required to abate it. Definitions are added for “confirmed lead poisoning”, which describes the level of lead in the blood, and “lead hazard abatement” which is the removal or correction of the condition specifically identified as causing lead poisoning. 

Current law requires that written notice of a determination of a lead poisoning hazard be given by the Division of Public Health to the property owner, managing agent, and people residing/attending the facility. New language reduces the Division’s notice requirement towards managing agents  to a “reasonable and practicable effort” to provide written notice.

When a child under the age of six is confirmed to have lead poisoning, the Division shall require a lead hazard abatement at the places frequented by the child. If unable to get the cooperation of the owner/manager of a specific property after all other addresses have tested negative for lead, the Division can seek a court order in superior court to perform the lead hazard abatement. Currently, abatement provisions don’t apply to owners of single-family dwellings or complexes of less than 12 single-family units. Section 3 of the bill broadens the application to apply only to owners of residential rental property and landlords that accept compensation of the use of residential property by another.

This committee substitute comes to the Floor under the Modified Structured Rule.

Chairman Manning’s Opinion of the legislation:

About 1000 of Georgia’s children under the age of six are poisoned every year due to their ingestion or inhalation of lead from various sources. Since these poisonings are predominately occurring in single family dwellings (usually low-income rental houses build before 1978) the object of the legislation is to identify the source of the lead. The removal and correction of the specifically identified lead hazard will help keep the child’s lead levels from rising and thus causing further damage and will keep other children from harm. Lead poisoning can lead to reading and learning disabilities, speech and language handicaps, lowered IQ, neurological deficits, behavioral problems, mental retardation, kidney disease, heart disease, and stroke. All of these have the potential of increasing the cost of remedial education or medical intervention under Medicaid. Intervention and prevention are keys to averting these increased risks and costs.