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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Maurci Jackson's daughter was just 15 months old when she ate a piece of lead-based paint. Now 10, Maurissa Jackson is hyperactive and has problems paying attention. But her mother considers herself fortunate. At least Maurissa told her immediately that she had eaten the paint so her mother could get her to a doctor, the Chicago woman said Thursday. Thousands of parents across the country are not aware when their children are exposed to lead poisoning and are unable to save them from serious harm, including diminished intelligence, hearing loss and, in extreme cases, death. Attorney General Janet Reno called lead paint 'one of the biggest environmental threats facing children today.'' Reno, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner and District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams announced results Thursday from stepped-up enforcement measures aimed at protecting children from lead poisoning. The 1992 Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act requires landlords to notify new tenants or buyers if an apartment or house could cause lead poisoning. The Department of Justice, HUD and EPA began joint enforcement of the law last August and started with the district, Los Angeles and Chicago. Court actions totaling more than $1 million have been filed against landlords across the country violating the law, Reno said. Four companies owning real estate in the district have agreed to pay penalties, and HUD has initiated 45 cases against companies in other cities. 'We can eradicate this danger to our children,'' Reno said. In the district, Chris Leonard, a spokesman with ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, said the legislation does not go far enough. He said landlords should be required to make the apartments safe from lead poisoning. Cuomo called lead poisoning 'a silent enemy'' that leaves as many as 890,000 children per year with elevated levels of lead in their blood. Most of those children are from low-income families living in housing built before 1978, when lead-based paint was banned, according to information from HUD. It's rare for a child to eat a piece of chipped paint, Cuomo said. Usually, the lead rubs off the walls when windows or doors are opened or closed and enters the air or falls on the floor in the form of dust. 'The child crawls on the floor, gets dust on his hands, eats a cookie and ingests the lead,'' he said.
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