The reduction of lead poisoning in children has emerged as one of the flagship initiatives in the nation's public health program. In young children, the most vulnerable population group, lead has been linked to impairment of intelligence, small motor control, hearing, and emotional development even at low concentrations where obvious symptoms are not present. At current exposures, 1.7 million children aged 1 to 5 years continue to have blood lead levels above 10 pg/dl-high enough to be of health concern under the 1991 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines [Brody et al., 19941. Lead-based paint in housing-via ingestion of flaking or chalking paint, and ingestion and inhalation of dust and soil contaminated with paint-is the primary cause of these elevated levels i n children.
The abatement of lead-based paint has become the principal public policy response to childhood lead poisoning [Goldman and Carra, 19941. The burden for carrying out this cleanup falls in large measure on the owners of private housing units, subject to standards established by th: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the authority of Title X of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The magnitude of this task is monumental. In 1990, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimated that there were 57 million privately owned housing units with some lead-based paint [HUD, 19901. The estimated cost of cleanup (testing and a low-cost