After more than a year of meetings, in-person and on Zoom, the Governor’s Lead Advisory Committee has finished its work and laid out a blueprint in which the state takes the lead in ending lead hazards in homes and water pipes — while avoiding hard mandates on property owners.
The report, published Jan. 30, contains 21 recommendations for reducing Ohio’s exposure to toxic lead. It emphasizes testing, public awareness, programs to help property owners reduce lead exposure in their homes, stepped-up work on replacing lead water pipes, and getting more people into the business of lead-abatement contracting.
LeeAnne Cornyn, Gov. Mike DeWine’s Director of Children’s Initiatives, told The Blade the advisory committee was “a pretty significant effort” to articulate Ohio’s goals for reducing lead exposure.
“Certainly many of these things have been talked about for an extended period of time,” Ms. Cornyn said. “I know that the folks up in Cleveland, and obviously many folks in Toledo, have been saying that the state needs to take a primary prevention approach. And now we have clearly articulated that as a goal of the state and it’s something that the governor will continue to hold our agencies accountable for.”
