Health officials estimate that as many as 1,500 children in Kansas City and hundreds more in neighboring Kansas counties have lead poisoning from lead paint.
The Kansas City Star reports that although lead paint was outlawed in 1978 the problem persists, largely in poor neighborhoods. Effects of lead poisoning include hearing loss and learning disabilities.
Kansas City's Project Lead Safe KC has removed lead hazards from about 2,500 homes by repainting and by replacing windows. But the program also has been hit by federal budget cuts.
In Kansas, the state's lead poisoning prevention programs disappeared after the state lost federal funding to budget cuts. Kansas devotes almost no money to lead poisoning prevention, and when federal funding returned for some programs two years ago, Kansas didn't apply for it.
