The Voice of the People
A Community Voice; California Communities Against Toxins; Healthy Homes Collaborative; New Jersey Citizen Action; New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning; Sierra Club; United Parents Against Lead National; and We Act for Environmental Justice challenge the EPA Final Rule on LBP (Lead Based Paint) hazards and points out that the EPA sets acceptable lead levels that fail to identify dangerous lead conditions.
Wake
Friday Dec 13th
5pm – 8pm
Fondel Funeral Home
832 N Lyons St, Lake Charles, LA 70601
Funeral
Sat Dec 14th
1pm
Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church
2031 Opelousas St, Lake Charles, LA 70601
Albert Lanny Roy
Raised in Southwest Louisiana by Acadiana Creoles, hard-working poor parents, his mother said that she worked from sunup to sundown in the fields like a man for a dollar a day. Lanny became employed as a “fire fighter” who was hired to put out the fires in numerous petro-chemical plants in the Lake Charles area. This gave him access to integrate all of their lunchrooms, bathrooms and break rooms. As a result of this conflict at PPG, he was given a faulty suit, and along with another co-fighter was exposed to a tank of chlorine gas. After 30 minutes, they called the ambulance, and he survived with only one functioning lung, His coworker didn’t make it. This became a turning point for Roy as he was permanently disabled and started organizing in his community with ACORN and the NAACP. He was the volunteer leader and organizer for Lake Charles A Community Voice and leader of the state operation. Campaigns he has led have created institutional change in banks in redlining fights.
But that was the tip of the iceberg because Lanny had brought so much more to the fray to the fabric of life in southwest Louisiana, so much so that he was called upon to visit small rural areas where sheriffs ran the towns and roads like they owned them, and harassed black women, a lot. This includes sexual oppression. They called Lanny to stop this nonsense and he did. And more than once.
He rode to Deridder and stopped a racist owner from stealing back a home purchased by a black family there; he negotiated a landmark agreement with the Sheriff’s office in Calcasieu to end police brutality; he negotiated with racist bankers who didn’t want to lend to blacks but then they did.
Mr. Roy has also directed and won several major Fair Housing lawsuits and discrimination cases that altered illegal real estate and lending practices. Some of the community campaigns he has won are as diverse as preventing a railroad from cutting off his neighborhood to forcing a radio station to continue to air local gospel music and not canned soft rock – and many other victories, too many to enumerate. He was a southwest Louisiana legend and community hero.
Lanny enjoyed the support of the members all across Louisiana and had held the presidency for decades of Louisiana ACORN and then A Community Voice until his death.
He knew the best and the brightest of the organizing members and he joined the top of their ranks by the vote of the members.
There is never a time when one would consider a discussion of the history of ACORN and its cousin A Community Voice without discussing the hero organizer leader from Lake Charles, child of strong Louisianans who knew how to stand up, organize and fight.
Rest in Power Lanny Roy!
A Community Voice has been working with Earthjustice to change the formaldehyde regulations in light of the poisoning that occurred from the FEMA trailers placed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
EPA agreed to make the compliance deadline for the formaldehyde regulations June 1, 2018. They have now issued its first enforcement action for violations of the formaldehyde regulations. EPA entered a settlement agreement with Global Sourcing Solutions to resolve the violations. Under the settlement agreement, Global Sourcing Solutions must take corrective actions to come into compliance and pay a penalty of $544,064. Please find below EPA’s press release on the enforcement action.
Thank you Earthjustice!
EPA Addresses Violations of Requirements for Formaldehyde Emissions for Imported Composite Wood Products
WASHINGTON (August 26, 2019) —Last week the Environmental Appeals Board approved a settlement resolving violations of the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act of 2010 and its implementing Formaldehyde Rule (effective June 1, 2018). This is the first enforcement action taken by the agency for violations of the Formaldehyde regulations.
Formaldehyde is a colorless, flammable gas at room temperature and has a strong odor. The chemical is found in resins used in the manufacture of composite wood products (i.e., hardwood plywood, particleboard and medium-density fiberboard), among others. Exposure to formaldehyde may cause adverse health effects including irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat and at high exposure levels may cause some types of cancers. The Formaldehyde Rule sets limits on how much formaldehyde can be released from composite wood products and establishes a program in which independent certifying organizations will verify that composite wood panel producers comply with the limits on formaldehyde releases.
The settlement with Global Sourcing Solutions, A Division of Turner Logistics, LLC (GSS) of Montvale, New Jersey, resolves violations associated with the importation of noncompliant composite wood products. Under the Consent Agreement, GSS agreed to take corrective actions to come into compliance and will pay a penalty of $544,064. The settlement reflects the company’s cooperation with EPA, its immediate efforts to come into compliance, and its implementation of the corrective action plan. As part of the settlement GSS, although not admitting liability, has modified its practices in construction projects across the country to assure future compliance with the Formaldehyde Rule requirements.
To read the Consent Agreement:https://yosemite.epa.gov/oa/EAB_Web_Docket.nsf/RecentAdditionsv2/35EF5959F6E2771685258457006C2202/$File/Final%20Order%20and%20Attachments.pdf
ACV members Gwen Adams and Lind McField discuss Flooding and the United Flooded States of America Campaign.
SUBJECT: Record Floods Prompt Nationwide Campaign
Local communities exhausted by consistent flooding with little relief
Alliance of flood survivors launch United Flooded States of America
“We’re hurting, and need action to stop floodplain development and climate change” – Alliance Director Harriet Festing
More than 30 local and regional leaders across 16 states are joining together to start a national campaign to combat flooding. The United Flooded States of America, an initiative of Higher Ground, represent hundreds of thousands of people in cities, suburbs, towns and villages from across the U.S., who have been harmed by irresponsible building and climate change. They want action now to stop development in wetlands and floodplains, reform flood insurance laws, and reduce human-caused greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Their flag shows 50 stars, representing the 50 states, above a scene of flooded streets.
Starting July 1st, community leaders and flood survivors will bombard local, state and national politicians with videos, photographs, emails and postcards, documenting flooding that plagues many communities and often goes unaddressed. No one is safe from flooding, and these flood survivors are examples of that. They come from all walks of life and many have dramatic stories to tell.
The campaign was initiated by Harriet Festing, who leads Higher Ground, the largest flood survivor network in the country. “I’ve been working with some of these community leaders for almost two years, helping them find the resources they need to rebuild. But every time we meet, the subject returns to how to stop future flooding, not just recover from past disasters. After this year’s record-breaking flooding in the Midwest, we agreed that the time to speak up is now.” Pensacola, Florida leader Gloria Horning puts it this way: “These politicians must be part deaf not to hear what’s going on. So, we are going to shout out loud as we can: No building in floodplains and wetlands. Stop global warming now.”
Another leader in Port Arthur, Texas, Hilton Kelly, has seen all he needs to of flooding and contaminated streets, homes and waterways. “In our town, the oil and gas companies get what they need from our federal government and we get dirty and wet. We won’t take it anymore. They need to clean the place up, fix our homes, or pay us to move someplace safe and clean. When will our legislators get the message? This campaign is all about making sure they do.”
Higher Ground and Anthropocene Alliance are funded by a generous grant from the Kresge Foundation. Additional funding for Higher Ground has been provided by the U.S. Climate Action Network, and the Climigration Network, which recently named Harriet Festing an “Agenda Setter.”
Contact:
Dr. Stephen F. Eisenman
Co-Founder, Anthropocene Alliance, and Director of Art and Policy
s-eisenman@northwestern.edu 626-394-3311
Harriet Festing
Co-Founder, Anthropocene Alliance and Executive Director
www.anthropocenealliance.org
harriet@anthropocenealliance.org
Press release – UFSA 06.20.2019
ACV is part of the Coalition working to support the Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act of 2019.
Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act of 2019
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tim Scott (R-SC), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Todd Young (R-IN), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Tina Smith (D-MN) today introduced the Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act of 2019, which would require the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to update its lead poisoning prevention measures to reflect modern science and ensure that families and children living in federally-assisted housing are protected from the devastating consequences of lead poisoning.
Lead hazards in a home pose serious health and safety threats. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead hazards such as dust and chips from deteriorated lead-based paint are the most common source of lead exposure for U.S. children. A 2011 HUD survey found that lead-based paint is in roughly 37 million U.S. homes, 93% of which were built before 1978––the year lead-based paint use in housing was banned in the United States. While the available science for detecting and remediating lead hazards in a home has evolved significantly in the last two decades, federal laws and regulations continue to lag far behind, leaving vulnerable Americans—of whom a disproportionate amount are minorities—at the risk of being exposed lead before any intervention is triggered. Left unaddressed, lead poisoning can cause long-term and irreversible health, neurological, and behavioral problems in children.
“It is unacceptable that children continue to be at risk from lead poisoning, which can lead to serious health problems,” Durbin said. “I am reintroducing this bill alongside my colleagues to ensure we are doing everything we can to update outdated federal public housing standards and provide additional prevention measures. There is nothing more important than ensuring the health and safety of our children.”
“With buildings dating to the 1920s, South Carolina is home to some of the oldest standing public housing in the country,” Scott said. “We owe it to children both in South Carolina and across the country to make certain that proper inspections are taking place in regards to lead paint. My mission is to ensure every child from every zip code in the country has the opportunity to succeed, and I am proud to help reintroduce this bipartisan to help ensure low-income families have access to safe housing that can provide a stable environment for their children’s dreams to grow.”
“It’s incomprehensible that, in 2019, children are still growing up in homes where it’s unsafe to breathe the air because of lead contamination,” said Menendez. “There is no safe lead level for children, which is why we must do more to strengthen inspection standards and prevent children’s exposure to lead hazards in federally-assisted housing. The cost of inaction is far too great for our kids and our communities.”
“Protecting our children must always be priority number one,” said Young. “All children deserve the opportunity to grow up in homes and communities that are safe from harmful toxins, and this legislation is an important step to ensure the utmost safety in federally assisted housing.”
“No parent should have to worry if their home is a safe place for their children, yet in far too many houses across Illinois, children are at risk of lead poisoning,” said Duckworth. “Our bipartisan legislation will help address this public health crisis by better identifying lead hazards at home and providing affected families with a safe environment to relocate to.”
“Passing legislation to ensure children are protected from lead exposure should be a must-pass priority this Congress,” Kaine said. “This bill would mandate rigorous measures to ensure that our children will not be at-risk for lead poisoning and the irreversible health problems that come with it.”
“There is no safe level of lead for children, and more than 2,000 children in Ohio have elevated levels of lead in their blood. That is unacceptable,” said Portman. “Every child should have the opportunity to reach their God-given potential and that’s why we must bring these outdated HUD lead standards up to date. More than that, we must invest in prevention to ensure every Ohio family is safe. This is a simple, common sense, bipartisan solution to address a key challenge facing low-income communities in Ohio and across the country and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.”
“A family should never have to choose between affordable housing and their child’s safety,” Smith said. “Yet our current housing standards put children at risk for lead poisoning by failing to properly screen for lead in advance, and by punishing families that choose to move out of unsafe housing. We know that any lead exposure is too much for children, and this bill ensures that our housing laws reflect this.
Under HUD’s current lead hazard regulations, visual assessments are used to identify the presence of lead in a housing unit. However, while visual assessments—which usually entail identifying chipped and peeling paint—can show signs of lead hazards, modern scientific research has proven that such assessments are profoundly inadequate for identifying the most common sources of lead paint in a home: in intact painted surfaces such as window sashes and windowsills. In order to comprehensively determine the presence of lead and adequately protect children from lead poisoning, HUD’s policy must shift from identification and management to primary prevention.
Specifically, the Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act of 2019 would ensure that families and children living in federally assisted housing are protected from the devastating consequences of lead poisoning by adopting primary prevention measures to protect children in low-income housing, including:
The legislation is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, American Association of Poison Control Centers, American Hospital Association, ChangeLab Solutions, Center for Environmental Health, Conservation Law Foundation, Community Catalyst, Doctors for Global Health, Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, Habitat for Humanity International , Housing Assistance Council, Human Impact Partners, Health Justice Innovations, LLC, Lead Lab, Inc., MomsRising.org, National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), National Disability Rights Network, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, National Housing Law Project , National Housing Trust, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, National Low Income Housing Coalition, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Chicago Hispanic Health Coalition, Elevate Energy, Erie Family Health Centers, Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, Metropolitan Tenants Organization, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Environmental Advocacy Clinic, Veterans for Peace Chicago Chapter, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Prevention Institute, Progressive Doctors, Safe Kids Worldwide, Toxic Action Center Campaigns, Trust for America’s Health, United Parents Against Lead, Western Center on Law & Poverty, Housing Equality & Advocacy, Resource Team (HEART L.A.), Colorado Chapter—American, Academy of Pediatrics, Children’s Forum, Florida Association for Infant, Mental Health, Florida Center for Inclusive Communities, Florida Chapter—American Academy of Pediatrics, FSU Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy, Hoosier Environmental Council, We the People for East Chicago, Iowa Chapter—American Academy of Pediatrics, A Community Voice – Louisiana, Louisiana Public Health Institute, Louisiana Psychiatric Medical Association, Children’s Advocacy Center, Avesta Housing, Environmental Health Strategy Center, Maine Affordable Housing Coalition, Maine Children’s Alliance, Big Cities Health Coalition, The #BmoreLEADfree Initiative at Morgan State University, Disability Rights Maryland, Maryland Public Health Association, Public Justice Center, CLEARCorps Detroit, Ecology Center, Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan, Michigan Alliance for Lead Safe Homes, Michigan League for Public Policy, MSU-Hurley Pediatric Public Health Initiative, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, Mississippi Center for Justice, Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing & Opportunity Council, Saint Louis University Legal Clinic, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Washington University School of Law Civil Rights & Community Justice Clinic, Arc of Nebraska, Community Action of Nebraska, Community Health Charities of Nebraska, Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln, Nebraska Appleseed, Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance, Voices for Children, Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, Nevada Chapter—American Academy of Pediatrics, Greater Seacoast Community Health, New Hampshire Public Health Association, Southwestern Community Services, Isles, Inc., Children’s Defense Fund—New York, Center for the History & Ethics of Public Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia Law School Health Justice Advocacy Clinic at Morningside Heights Legal Services, Inc., Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, Ashe County Habitat for Humanity, Habitat for Humanity Cabarrus County, Lexington NC Area Habitat for Humanity, Inc., NC Child, North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness, North Carolina Habitat for Humanity, North Carolina Justice Center, Person County Habitat for Humanity, Toxic Free NC, Children’s Defense Fund—Ohio, Cleveland Lead Safe Network, Coalition on Homelessness and Housing, Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development, Environmental Health Watch, Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research, Habitat for Humanity in Cleveland County, Health Law Clinic, Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, MetroHealth System, Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, Ohio Healthy Homes Network, Ohio Poverty Law Center, Schubert Center for Child, Studies at Case Western, Reserve University, Universal Health Care Action, Network of Ohio, Community Legal Services, HousingWorks RI, S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center, Tennessee Justice Center, Tennessee Voices for Children, Children’s Defense Fund—Texas, Vermont Legal Aid, Inc., Vermont Conservation Voters, Virginia Housing Alliance, Columbia Legal Services, Partners for our Children, Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments, and the Wisconsin Public Health Association.
April 17th, 2019
ACV members in the Upper 9th Ward met with the Mayor’s Office on the corner of Law & Piety streets to show them their struggles with blight and flooding due to torn up street and drainage systems.
Despite numerous calls from residents like 74-year old Gloria Williams, an A Community Voice member who lives in the 3200 block of Law street in a beautiful home and perfectly manicured yard, City Officials are nonresponsive to pleas for help to deal with blight, flooding, unpaved streets and potholes.
“I worked hard to come back from hurricane Katrina,” says ACV member Gloria Williams, “I spent all this money to rebuild and the City doesn’t care about how we are in a jungle with no paved streets and no drainage.”
Mrs. Williams cuts the abandoned lot next door to her home and struggles every day with dump trucks, school buses and city buses speeding down her dusty unpaved, potholed-riddled streets. Chronic flooding occurs due to lack of drainage and buses driving on the sidewalks to avoid huge potholes. The street is littered with abandoned homes. Children have to wait for the school bus next to an opened and un-boarded abandoned house. Residents have respiratory problems due to the white dust from speeding buses on the unpaved streets in front of their homes.
Residents can hardly make it to Pastor Johnny Arvie’s Law Street Missionary Baptist Church on a Sunday morning because of all the potholes and bad drainage leading up to his church at 3132 Law Street. Possums and all types of wild animals come out of the 3300 block of Law Street due to the jungle of overgrown blight. These lots would be prefect for A Community Voice’s Blight to Bioswales Campaign to install raingardens/Bioswales on abandoned lots to reduce flooding and chronic blight.
A Community Voice asked that the Mayor address the residents’ concerns and fix their street, install working drainage systems, cut the vacant lots and allow the installation of Bioswales to reduce flooding in the street, as well as stop the speeding buses and dump trucks from damaging their homes.
ACV next steps on the Blight to Bioswales campaign is to meet with the Mayor and City Attorney about access to blighted lots for the installation of Bioswales/raingardens and to follow on the residents’ concerns from today’s meeting. To report blighted lots in your neighborhood, call us at 504-941-2852.
