City Comptroller Launches NYCHA Lead Poisoning Probe
Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson jointly announced on Sunday that New York City would become one of the first jurisdictions in the country to conduct environmental investigations for all children under 18 years old with a blood lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter.
NEW YORK CITY—After the latest city statistics indicated that more than 800 children aged five and under living in New York City Housing Authority apartments tested positive for elevated levels of lead, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said his office will begin an investigation into the widening lead poisoning scandal at city-owned housing properties.
The New York Daily News and New York Post published stories over the weekend that detailed New York City Department of Health statistics that indicated 820 children aged five and under living in NYCHA apartments tested positive for elevated lead levels of 5 to 9 micro-grams per deciliter of blood from 2012 through 2016.
The de Blasio administration in response to those reports announced an expansion and strengthening of its lead exposure investigation programs. Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson jointly announced on Sunday that New York City would become one of the first jurisdictions in the country to conduct environmental investigations for all children under 18 years old with a blood lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter.
While the de Blasio administration stressed the dramatic reductions in lead exposure at NYCHA properties since 2005, New York City Comptroller Stringer announced his office would begin a probe of the DOH and NYCHA surrounding the ongoing lead poisoning scandal.
“This deception must end today. It is horrifying that the Department of Health kept this information under wraps and it is outrageous that the city continues to justify and minimize this scandal,” Stringer said. “Today, we are launching an investigation to hold officials accountable from the Department of Health to NYCHA to City Hall. Nothing is more important than protecting the most vulnerable children in our city.”
He said the investigation will focus on the city’s procedures for addressing lead poisoning hazards to protect the health of all children and stressed that “Agencies must be held accountable for coordinating and following all laws as well as best practices to keep our kids safe and healthy.”
Mayor de Blasio said, “Lead poisoning is down almost 90% since 2005. But that’s not good enough. We’ve already made our testing protocols stricter for kids in public housing and we are now extending that standard to the entire city. It’s our job to always push the envelope when it comes to our kids’ health.”
City Council Speaker Johnson noted that approximately 4,300 children tested positive for high amounts of lead in their system last year. “This expansion of the investigation program by the Health Department follows the introduction of City Council legislation aimed at revamping the city’s current lead laws to make children safer, including lowering the threshold for intervention by the city to align with the Centers for Disease Control standard of 5 micrograms per deciliter. These measures, along with strict enforcement of existing laws, will help bring the number of children with high lead levels in the city down to the ultimate goal of zero.”
With the newly expanded program, the city’s Health Department will now visit the home of all children under the age of 18 with blood levels of 5 micrograms and above to help identify possible sources of lead exposure. If a lead paint hazard is found during the investigation, the Health Department will issue a Commissioner’s Order to Abate, directing the property owner to fix the hazard.
Following a City Council-led overhaul of the city’s lead laws, New York City has seen an 89% reduction in the number of children under age 6 with blood lead level at or above 5 micrograms since 2005.
Preliminary data on lead poisoning in children show that between 2016 and 2017 there was a 13% drop in the number of children under age 6 with blood lead levels at or above 5 micrograms from 4,928 to 4,293.
New York City and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered a consent decree last month that if finalized will require the city to spend more than $2 billion at public housing properties in connection with a federal complaint that cited years of neglect and safety violations by the New York City Housing Authority, including inadequate protections of children from lead-based paint at city public housing properties.