1989 Lead Contamination Control Act

The Lead Contamination Control Act (LCCA) was a congressional order passed in 1988. It focused on two different aspects, the access within schools to clean drinking water and the funding for lead screening programs for children. Both of these issues had been proven to be good preventative measures in protecting kids from lead contamination. The bill itself not only required that the EPA fund these measures, but also release all relevant data regarding them. This was in part due to the EPA knowing where the best laboratories were for the testing of lead in children, but also them already having the means to do this on their own. However, this law made it a more local issue. By disclosing this information, schools gained the ability (as stated in the EPA Flyer) to reach out and ask for an examination of the water in their schools. The second and third benefits from this too were that schools would gain access to funds and grants in order to remedy any issues that arose. The law itself required this due to the fact that it had proven to be highly effective in previous iterations of this plan. And by providing the necessary funds and grants, any school gained the ability to have their water sources tested and remediated as well as do lead screenings on their students. 

Another thing required by the law was that the results of these tests be made known to the public. This serves multiple purposes. The first is that it kept the EPA accountable for their own testing. They were not allowed to run everything on their end and keep it private but instead had to share all data openly. This also meant that they would be unable to abstain from remediating schools and other organizations that took advantage of this offer. This was because other remediation laws at the time required the EPA to remediate areas if they passed a certain threshold lead level. It also meant that they would have funds specifically set aside for the issue of remediating schools, a highly important thing as children are the most vulnerable population to lead and schools obviously are a hotbed of many children. 

However, possibly the most useful part of this particular law is that it permitted local areas to figure out how to best implement this. They would be able to, in the laws words, “(1) screen infants and children for elevated blood lead levels; (2) assure referral for treatment of, and environmental intervention for, infants and children with such blood lead levels; and (3) provide education about childhood lead poisoning” This is significant as some areas and communities might have and still might require vastly different strategies for approaching the issue of lead screening. So, by giving them the ability to not only make the decisions of how to implement this policy, but also give them the funds and resources in order to do so, the individuals and communities were being given full control of all they would need in order to fight the issue of lead.