Opinion: On National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, we must protect the most vulnerable among us

This week, during National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, we redouble our commitment to preventing lead exposure for all and especially the most vulnerable New Yorkers. 

For children, exposure to lead can be especially harmful, leading to effects including brain damage and delayed growth and development, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In the last year of available data, over 4,600 children under 6 had blood lead levels at or above the 3.5 mcg/dL threshold. (There is no safe level of lead in the bloodstream.) These health injustices fall disproportionately on children of color, according to a report by the city. That number represents 4,600 families who may have to shoulder the additional costs and challenges of supporting children with lifelong neurological and development problems. 

Children are most likely to be exposed to lead in their homes, which means our efforts to prevent exposure should start there. That’s why I introduced Intro 1030, which requires the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to declare a public nuisance in connection with lead hazards found in homes. 

Under current law, the city has a powerful authority to seek remedies for conditions in multiple dwellings that are dangerous to life or detrimental to health through the declaration of a public nuisance. In the context of housing, a public nuisance is considered a condition that poses a threat to the public, like overcrowding, inadequate ingress or egress, structural problems or poor ventilation. Lead hazards are currently absent from this list, but Intro 1030 would change that. 

Here’s how the update to the law would work: when the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issues a commissioner’s order to correct or remediate a hazardous lead condition or if a property owner is a repeat offender, HPD would declare that lead hazard to be a public nuisance. That declaration gives the city additional authority to compel the abatement of the hazard or do the work itself if the property owner doesn’t comply. In egregious cases of noncompliance, the city could commence a proceeding to institute a court-appointed receiver who would be responsible for executing the work and collecting rents until the unsafe conditions are remediated. Once the court is satisfied with the building's conditions, a property owner could assume control of their building again. 

Unfortunately, some bad actors choose to callously ignore the law to avoid the sometimes costly process to remediate lead hazards, which is why this bill is badly needed. In my Manhattan district, where much of the housing stock is pre-1960 when lead paint was widely used, housing organizers from Cooper Square Committee have formed a coalition known as Lead Dust Free NYC to help tenants living in homes with lead paint get their buildings remediated. It’s not an easy process. and with over 75% of buildings in New York City presumed to contain lead hazards, we have to use every tool we can to protect New Yorkers.

By updating our laws to recognize failures to abate lead contaminated housing as the  public nuisance it clearly is, we give communities an additional tool to protect themselves against negligent property owners who are more concerned with their bottom line than residents’ well-being. When markets incentivize profiteering over public safety, the government has a responsibility to protect us. Let’s pass Intro 1030 to empower the city with more avenues to pursue remediation of dangerous lead hazards,  create safer communities and drive down the number of young New Yorkers exposed to toxic chemicals that can harm them and forever change their lives.