Lead-Based Paint Poisoning

Children Not Fully Protected When Federal Agencies Sell Homes to Public Gao ID: RCED-93-38 April 5, 1993

Lead paint was used in homes until the 1970s, including many of the 110,000 homes sold to the public in fiscal year 1992 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Farmers Home Administration. In response to the devastating consequences of lead poisoning among young children, Congress in 1988 strengthened requirements for single-family homes that the government sells to the public. Agencies were required to test--rather than visually inspect--painted surfaces, treat both defective and intact surfaces containing lead, and notify purchasers of test results. Yet HUD never revised its regulations to reflect the tougher 1988 testing and treatment requirements. Even the less stringent regulations have not been fully implemented by the agencies' field offices. For example, although HUD requires that inspections be documented, the field offices GAO reviewed could not produce this documentation. This report also discusses how recent legislation has affected lead-based paint hazards.

GAO found that: (1) HUD regulations for federally-owned properties are limited in identifying and eliminating lead-based paint poisoning hazards; (2) HUD, VA, and FmHA have not fully implemented current regulations; (3) HUD field offices inspected properties, but did not document treatment of defective surfaces; (4) VA did not require its regional offices to document inspections or notifications or treat defective surfaces in pre-1978 housing; (5) FmHA field offices did not test for or treat lead-based paint hazards in residences or require that purchasers be notified about lead-based paint hazards; (6) HUD has reviewed its field offices' compliance with lead-based paint requirements; (7) VA and FmHA have not addressed compliance with lead-based paint requirements in their field office reviews; and (8) new legislation substantially revises requirements for selling federally-owned residential properties.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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