Sen. Susan Collins recently announced that Maine communities will receive $15 million in grants to help with lead abatement. As someone who championed this issue during my time in the Maine Senate, I would like to sincerely thank her for these efforts.
Although we have known about the dangers of lead poisoning for decades now, our old housing stock, coupled with the high cost of abatement, has proven to be quite a challenge for many of our communities, with known hot spots in Portland and in old mill towns including Lewiston-Auburn and Biddeford.
Through public awareness campaigns and grants like the one just announced by Sen. Collins, we have come a long way toward eradicating lead paint in our old buildings, but many of our poorest residents, and unfortunately children, are still impacted by the serious side effects of lead paint exposure today.
Even at low concentrations, lead poisoning causes learning disabilities, lower intelligence, language or speech delays, behavior problems and hearing damage, and once someone is poisoned, these effects are irreversible.
Please join me in thanking Sen. Collins for continuing to advocate for Maine’s most vulnerable populations. This grant money will undoubtedly move the needle in making lead poisoning a public health crisis of the past.
Amy Volk
former Republican state senator
Scarborough
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