AUGUSTA -- House Speaker Glenn Cummings on Tuesday called childhood lead poisoning "a completely preventable disease" that can be wiped out with education and fees raised on each gallon of paint sold.

Cummings, a Portland Democrat, said he and his wife were stunned to learn years ago that their 18-month-old son suffered from lead poisoning related to home renovations.

And while their son is doing well today, Cummings said he wants to protect other Maine children.

"It was a remarkable and devastating learning experience," he said. "The greatest tragedy, whether as a lawmaker or as a parent, is that lead poisoning is a completely preventable disease."

Cummings is sponsoring a bill that would keep in place a 25-cent-per-gallon fee on paint. Instead of allowing the fee to expire in 2011, it would remain until the state determines that no new cases of childhood lead poisoning have been found for two years.

Each year, about 250 children in Maine are found to suffer from lead poisoning, said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lead poisoning puts children at risk for behavioral and developmental disabilities, Mills said. The issue stems from Maine's old housing stock, with 87 percent of lead-poisoned children living in pre-1950s era homes, according to the CDC.

Mills said that, although lead was removed from residential paint as of 1978, paint used in homes even older tend to contain higher levels of lead. That's because the industry began using less lead in paint in the 1950s and 1960s, she said.

"When I was practicing in Farmington, I was amazed at the number of children who came in with lead poisoning," she said.

The bill also requires stores that sell paint or paint removers to display a poster warning customers of the potential danger of lead paint. The state Department of Environmental Protection would be required to produce the posters and brochures.

It also sets up a voluntary registry of lead-safe apartments and rental homes that are certified following an inspection. Cummings said this will help responsible landlords market their properties to prospective tenants.

But Linda Gifford of the Maine Association of Realtors questioned the idea of a registry.

"We're going to stigmatize an enormous number of properties in Maine," she said. "We've got not a very good housing market in Maine. Landlords don't need another reason to say 'I'm giving up.' "

Gifford said she supported many aspects of the bill, including the extension of the 25-cent-per-gallon fee.

Others who support most of the bill -- the Maine Real Estate & Development Association and the Maine Real Estate Managers Association -- raised questions about language that calls for landlords to take "reasonable precautions" to make sure rental properties are free of lead.

"What is meant by reasonable precautions?" said Rosemary Moeykens of the managers association. "What is best efforts? Efforts within a property owner's financial ability to pay for improvements?"

The bill proposes to require the state Department of Environmental Protection, Maine State Housing Authority and Department of Health and Human Services to propose additional changes next year to help the state achieve the goal of eliminating childhood lead poisoning.

Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph Brannigan, D-Portland, asked those with strong opinions on the bill to work with Mills and Cummings to craft an amendment that is acceptable to most of them.

The committee is scheduled to resume discussions on the bill today.