Kids continue to be poisoned while local officials yammer

In the past decade, 2,500 children in Youngstown were diagnosed with lead poisoning, and 400 homes were identified as having lead-based paints that were peeling or chipping from walls.
A year ago, Matthew Stefanak, Mahoning County health commissioner, made it known publicly that 285 rental properties in the city were not in compliance with a Youngstown Board of Health order to remediate lean-poisoning situations and that at least 10 of the properties had been re-let to families with children even after "Do Not Rent" and "Unfit for Human Habitat" signs were posted.
And yet this week, Youngstown Health Commissioner Neil Altman made an admission that threw us for a loop: There isn't a consensus on how to regulate lead in homes and how to enforce the rules adopted by local agencies, such as the city and county boards of health.
What galls us about the continuing disagreement over the definition of this environmental threat is that we have long been advising local officials to make lead poisoning a top public health priority and to make sure that children, especially those living in Youngstown's inner city, are removed from harm's way.
Front burner
Indeed, The Vindicator let it be known six years ago, through a series of stories about the extent of the lead poisoning problem in the region, that it is determined to keep this issue on the front burner. Thus, we've used the news pages and this space to let the public know what is and what is not being done to enforce lead abatement laws and health department regulations.
We were heartened in March when the nation's lead czar, David E. Jacobs, spoke at a forum, "Childhood Lead Poisoning: A Call to Action," at Youngstown State University's Kilcawley Center. Jacobs, director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, praised the "strong desire in this community" to solve the lead poisoning problem.
We also were pleased to hear Dr. Bruce P. Lanphear, director of Children's Environmental Health Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, talk about how "exciting" it was to "see the Youngstown community concerned and acting on the lead poisoning issue."
But now we find out that even with Ken Kovach, a Cleveland city councilman and facilitator, being hired last year to mediate the disagreements among the Mahoning County Landlords' Association, health officials, politicians and members of Children and Family First Council, building a consensus has been a huge challenge.
Kovach has finally come up with an action plan, but it won't be worth the paper it's written on unless and until all parties agree to implement its recommendations -- now.