THE LEAD POISONING ISSUE IN NEW YORK CITY

Health effects
Sources of lead poisoning and the affected communities
History of New York City laws

In 1996, New York's highest court declared that childhood lead poisoning was perhaps "the most significant environmental disease in New York City." Yet in 1999, the City Council, in one of the most contentious votes in the past decade, enacted major revisions that many considered a weakening of NYC's lead poisoning prevention laws, changes that were subsequently struck down by the state Supreme Court. This is an important issue for those running for public office, as it is likely to be before the next Council early in its term.

The Health Effects of Lead Poisoning
Lead particles ingested by the human body cause severe damage to the brain and central nervous system. Infants and young children are particularly at risk of lead poisoning, both because their normal hand-to-mouth activity causes more frequent ingestion of such particles, and, more significantly, because their brains and nervous systems are particularly vulnerable in their early developmental stages. Environmental factors can cause older children and adults to be at risk also, particularly in the construction trades.

Lead poisoning is often unrecognized or under-recognized because in the majority of cases, lead poisoning is asymptomatic. When symptoms are present, they are the same as many other childhood diseases and impairments. While severely elevated blood lead levels can cause coma, convulsions, kidney damage, and even death, all levels of lead toxicity cause some brain damage and reduced IQ; produce altered behavior such as attention deficit disorders; learning disabilities; and other cognitive and behavioral disturbances. These deficits in intellectual performance are considered irreversible, and thus this environmental disease has significant adverse socio-economic impacts. For example, the loss of 4 to 6 IQ points that results among a given population from even low level exposure increases by 80% the number of children falling into the borderline function IQ range, and thus requiring special education and other services.

The Sources of Lead Poisoning and the Affected Communities
Today, lead paint is the greatest source of lead poisoning. Ingestion or inhalation of lead-contaminated house dust is children's primary route of environmental exposure. Lead dust can be inhaled or swallowed when present on contaminated surfaces, such as children's toys, hands, and food, and is generated not only from peeling or chalking lead paint on aging or damaged structures, but also from normal abrasion of even intact painted surfaces, such as window and door frames. The paint particles either fall off from deterioration or abrasion or are released during repairs without adequate safety measures. Even invisible amounts of lead dust are hazardous; indeed, lead dust is so toxic to children that the federal government has recently lowered its safety standards to an amount that is less than 1/2 the mass of a single particle of coffee sweetener per square foot.

Based on NYC Department of Health Data, NYPIRG found that 94% of the highly lead poisoned New York City children are African-American, Latino, or Asian/Pacific. In some communities of color and low income areas of the City, up to 30% of one and two year old children are affected.

History of New York City's Lead Poisoning Prevention Laws
Lead paint was sold and used in this country for much of the 20th century. Although New York City was one of the first jurisdictions to ban the sale of lead paint (in 1960 — most of the rest of the country didn't ban lead paint until 1978), lead paint remains pervasive; the vast majority of painted structures constructed before 1960 contain some lead paint. The 1990 Census indicated that New York City has the nation's highest percentage of pre-1960 (63.5%) residential housing. The City estimates that almost 2,000,000 units of housing have lead based paint, approximately half of which are occupied by persons of low or moderate income; an estimated 323,000 apartments with lead paint have young children residing there, and of these, some 174,000 are occupied by low income families. And the Board of Education continued to use industrial grade lead paint in the schools up until nearly 1980.

Until 1982, the City could direct the removal of lead paint only after a child was already poisoned. However, since lead poisoning is a permanent injury, waiting until a child was poisoned was too late. Thus in 1982 the City enacted Local Law 1 ("LL1"), which required landlords to remove immediately lead paint in any multiple dwelling where a young child resided, before the child was lead poisoned.

On its face LL 1 was one of the strongest lead poisoning prevention laws in the country, and indeed, as a result NY City over the years had a much lower rate of lead poisoning than comparable cities. However, the City never fully enforced LL1, and many lead paint hazards were never removed. As a result, as many as 30,000 children in any given year are estimated to have blood lead levels exceeding federal and City standards.

In 1985, the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning ("NYCCELP") brought a class action against the City which resulted in several court orders directing the City to fully and properly enforce LL 1. And in 1996, New York's Court of Appeals declared that under LL1 landlords had a continuing obligation to ensure that dwellings with young children were free of lead hazards. Faced with these developments, and mounting pressure from the real estate lobby, in 1999 the City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Peter Vallone, rolled back the lead poisoning laws by enacting Local Law 38 of 1999 ("LL 38"), despite the virtually universal objections of leading public health experts and doctors, tenant organizations, disability, education, and environmental groups, as well as racial justice organizations and labor unions. Among other things, LL 38 shifted much of the burden of detecting and responding to lead hazards from landlords to tenants, eliminated lead dust (generally considered the prime cause of lead poisoning) from regulatory control, greatly scaled back the safety measures and training required during lead removal work, extended the time frames for enforcement to as long as 1/2 a year, and sought to curtail children's rights to civil remedies once lead poisoned. (For more information, see "What's Wrong with Local Law 38", at www.nmic.org/nyccelp.htm)

Subsequently, NYPIRG, NYCCELP and other organizations brought a suit ("NYCCELP v. Vallone") which asserted that the City Council violated state law by enacting LL 38 without proper environmental review. The state Supreme Court agreed and in October of 2000 declared LL 38 null and void and reinstated LL1; on appeal by the City the Appellate Division reversed the trial court and the parties are currently seeking permission to appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.

In the meantime, the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act (Intro 101) has been introduced in the Council. The bill has 31 sponsors and has been referred to the Housing and Buildings Committee. No hearing has been scheduled for the bill thus far. For more information click here.

For more information, see "What's Wrong with Local Law 38", at www.nmic.org/nyccelp.htm

 

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