Great reporting. The situation is disgraceful. And while I cannot stand the current mayor it does seem as though this problem has been passed down from administration to administration. Lots of blame to be shared with previous mayors.
10
It's not just the officials. How many of New Yorkers would support a tax increase to defray this? Raise your hands!
7
So much for government regulation. Is there any difference between that and private enterprise? Both don't care about the people. I can understand the private sector but the lack of government concern is if I might say despicably absent!
6
Doctors don't contact Health Department for investigations. The Health Department gets reports of ALL blood lead level tests and does inspections based on that information.
1
The NYT has done a great service by bringing this problem to light. It is not a new problem. Many other cities have experienced similar problems more than 20 years ago. Look at the record of Baltimore City. The fact that the HEALTH DEPARTMENT did not protect the health of innocent, vulnerable children, and the Housing Authority ducked its responsibilities to protect these children is outrageous. A thorough investigation should be done. The officials involved should be replaced and lose their benefits.
13
Like in Flint, Michigan, the officials responsible for the lack of action and coverup should face substantial penalties-- loss of jobs, loss of pensions and jail-time.
113
@Grandpa Bob
Good idea, but aint happening in Democratic NY. These are the shenanigans that come with one party rule.
5
For more than 3 years, I cared for an elderly resident who lived in a Nycha apartment. The apartment had peeling paint in every room, leaky plumbing, mold in the bathroom, and roaches everywhere. My requests for repairs were routinely ignored. On one occasion, I reported a leaky drain under the kitchen sink and was told that they don't fix leaks unless there was "6 inches" of water on the floor. I remedied every problem that I could and never received any assistance from Nycha staff or their contractors.
If the Mayor had taken the time to make surprise visits to Nycha apartments rather than waste time everyday traveling to the YMCA in Park Slope for his daily workout, perhaps some of these matters might have been addressed in a timely manner without costly court intervention.
129
@jrak
The mayor wants to privatize maintenance at public housing -- just as it's not done in the subways.
Heads need to roll and why not prison for lying bureaucrats.
15
The problem here is the same as in all public bureaucracies - firing people is a near impossibility.
Strip away civil service tenure, and start firing people.
Once you people on notice by firing people, things will change.
Start firing people, NOW.
7
And then there is the issue of lead in the drinking water in schools https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/nyregion/lead-nyc-schools.html and the practice of flushing out the pipes before conducting tests on the drinking water https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/nyregion/lead-tests-on-new-york-city-schools-water-may-have-masked-scope-of-risk.html The drinking fountains in the high school my kids attended before going to college are still switched off and kids have to buy bottled water (adding more plastic to the environment). When will the New York City government get its house (and houses and schools) in order?
7
And then we wonder why people don't trust the government.
3
I agree with commentator who said the Mayor gets a pass because he's labeled a Democrat. When Trump separates children from their mothers there is plenty of outrage. When de Blasio poisons children where is the commensurate outrage? Impeach de Blasio?
8
Peeling paint?
Cockroaches?
I smell a slumlord. A real big slumlord.
How's the plumbing?
How's the electrical?
How's the HVAC?
How're the appliances?
The smell is real bad.
6
So if this has been going on for decades, where was our shining press that so values truth? Please, please tell me that at least NYT has pursued this disaster and reported it faithfully and pursued it doggedly. The finger pointing can go on and on, and there is plenty of wrong to share. FIX IT!!!
4
I live in public housing and this is true, but a thing that they fail to mention is that most people have to take it upon themselves to remedy the conditions in which they live, but NYCHA will then turn around and charge you hundreds of dollars for work you did yourself to make sure you're not living with peeling walls, collapsing ceilings, etc.
The idea behind public housing is that it's supposed to be affordable for low-income families who wouldn't be able to rent on the open market, but you live in such dilapidated conditions it's no wonder no one cares. It doesn't matter how much you fumigate, how much you clean, how much you repair, the buildings are old, poorly built, and falling apart. It's exhausting.
13
@Dora It costs money to fix things. Where should that money come from?
3
I used to be a landlord in NYC (small timer- not a big company). We had older properties and many of the units had lead paint at one time or another. Over the years, we proactively checked for lead paint. When we found evidence of lead paint (which was very rare), we remedied the situation IMMEDIATELY. I can never understand landlords who would not do that. It’s (1) the right thing to do and (2) good for business- Why wouldn’t you want your customers (tenants) to be happy with what you’re providing them??? Property owners are primarily motivated by profit. Happy customers (tenants) translate to more profit. I can never understand landlords who don’t want their customers (tenants) to be happy with the product (apartment units) being provided. Now… as for government running housing… there is little incentive for them to want to do a good job. Government is not motivated by profit. That’s why most of what the government gets involved with ends up being a failure. Case in point… this NY Times article.
4
@ABC123
But no one expected you to go around with an x-ray gun looking for lead behind and inside the walls.
That's the distinction I draw here. No one expects private landlords to do this, and no private landlords do. When I was a renter, I had to sign a waiver every year acknowledging that my apartment might contain lead paint. When I bought my co-op (I had a baby at this time) I was advised by my attorney not to do a lead inspection since it was very likely lead would be found, and I would then be required by law to disclose this at time of sale and it would hurt my property values. This is how lead paint is handled in private dwellings.
Note that I'm not saying that the families of these children should not have been protected or do not deserve compensation. But lead paint is the deep, dark secret of older American housing, and no one is really addressing it according to the standards described here.
7
Based on what I have seen on TV, NYCHA does not have a paint problem, but a plumbing problem. Every defective area of paint I have seen is adjacent to drain pipes that are obviously leaking. It would be a massive job to replace these, but it is necessary. My building from 1957 is increasingly facing the failure of the galvanized steel pipe that goes from the bathtub drain to the cast iron toilet stack pipe. There are also "lead bends" under the toilets that eventually deteriorate.
3
@David
Very true! Either way fixing the problem is very expensive.
Why is the government even in the housing business in the first place?
3
The worst landlord in the City of New York is the City of New York.
12
Just proves subsidizing housing is a bad idea.
2
NYT a ver sad article but well written and informative. Individuals who work for NYCHA no person has been held accountable. WHY ? It appears the black community has been severely affected by the lead paint Where is the outcry and why no demonstrations ?
3
Those who are behind this travesty should be in prison.
6
Lead in blood means lead in or around the home.
The city behavior sounds fishy. Those portable XRF (x-ray fluorescence) units are well established measuring devices and are ideal for looking at lead in buildings since the inspector can carry the small device (looks like a ray-gun) to the site. Wet chemical techniques such as ICP-MS (inductively coupled mass spectrometry) that can measure lead in various media very precisely at low levels are also well established for validation of field measurements. Both techniques require a certain amount of expertise in performing a valid analysis but that's not rocket science. That's why we train analysts! Or why we should, anyway.
Leaded gas has been banned for decades, as has lead paint. Lead paint in houses may be painted over but if paint is chipping, kids can be exposed to the older stuff. Children in playgrounds can pick up lead if the playground is near a pre-ban highway.
My life's day job has been as an analytical chemist and geochemist. We measured trace and ultratrace levels of lead and other geochemical tracers. We routinely measured lead in seawater, fish, corals, and sediments and looked at its fate and transport. This isn't hard to figure out.
It sounds like NYC needs to hire an impartial outside observer to get to the bottom of this and see if the city is deliberately avoiding its responsibilities. Kids don't get high levels of blood lead unless there is lead in their environment. Period. Something smells here.
18
@Khal Spencer Of course I'd also like to see those blood lead levels as well as the laboratory standards and controls used by the MDs in reporting this. But 37 ug/dl is pretty darn high.
1
I share the outrage expressed by many here. Lead is known to cause long lasting, even lifetime impairments to memory and ability to concentrate, especially when one is exposed to it during development (childhood). However, I have one quibble with this article's headline: please be specific about who dismissed the test results. It wasn't "New York"; there are and were specific people who have names and job titles who dismissed,ignored and suppressed the findings, as well as others who allowed it to happen by lax or absent oversight. I believe it's important to make any story like this less about "the system" , and more about those who make up "the system" and actually did the deed or allowed it to happen. The way we change the system is by changing the personnel AND the structure. For this to happen, those who committed misdeeds have to be made known and held accountable.
14
I am the parent of a small child and the owner of a NYC co-op apartment in a prewar building. I also work in the building industry.
Lead hazards are real and lead hazards are truly dangerous, and anyone who trivializes the hazards should be held accountable.
That said, the science mentioned in this article is nebulous. It should be assumed that there is lead paint in the walls of any and all older buildings in this city, including many in affluent areas like Fifth or Park avenues. That, however, doesn't mean this lead paint is a hazard to children. If walls are kept in good repair and the paint is not cracking or peeling, then lead, like asbestos, is not a danger.
I am very careful about lead in my apartment and around my child. If you took an X-ray gun to the walls of my apartment, I'm pretty sure that somewhere, under ten or twenty layers of paint, there will be lead.
There's no doubt in my mind that NYCHA should have done better at testing for lead, or that children like Mikaila should have been protected. However, there's also no doubt in my mind that there are many interests out there looking to take down NYCHA and eliminate public housing altogether.
Get the science straight. No landlord, public or private, will ever be able to fully eliminate lead from hundreds of old buildings without huge sums of money allocated to the project. Asking orexpecting NYCHA to do this is wholly unrealistic.
8
@Amv
What's wrong with asking these people to do their job, instead of avoiding responsibility?
5
@Brad Blumenstock
My point is this: If you go looking for lead in older buildings, you will find it. That doesn't actually mean that A) the lead is a hazard or B) that is what caused a child to be injured by lead. There are many children living in older buildings, including my own, who are not lead-injured.
Everyday objects like car keys and batteries contain lead, and I shudder when I see parents handing babies keys to play with, as they sometimes do. I had my husband's hand-me-down painted baby furniture from when he was a child, and when I took the lead tester to it, it lit up red.
1
@Brad Blumenstock
Removing all lead paint from every wall, let alone pipe is not fiscally possible. Should we borrow more from the Chinese?
Lead is easy to test for; lead testing methods have been around for decades. How can the Housing Authority continue to contest the findings? This sounds like the EPA in MI when asked about Flint. People forget that the government and it's employees are not as pure as the driven snow; and no one can fight these government agencies. Cannot fire incompetent employees, cannot fight corrupt employees or agencies. The Housing Authority should be sued for it's complicity in denying the facts. It's costing more to inspect, collect, test, retest, re-inspect,.... do nothing.
5
Many years ago when the East Village's Margarita Lopez first ran for City Council I attended a get out the vote rally she held at a NYCHA public housing project. Lopez won that election and later became a top administrator and board member of NYCHA partially because she always portrayed herself as a champion of people living in NYCHA housing. Over the past few years I have been reading and following report after report of what I consider to be criminal violations and coverups by NYCHA administrators and board members like Margarita Lopez and I have to ask when will those people be named and prosecuted for what they did to the children who live in lead contaminated NYCHA apartments ?
8
the pensions of every single official who had a hand in his can be the first funds use to help these poor children
5
Please refer to this story whenever you are tempted to believe that "public" is always better than "private."
5
My bigger question is why we let children languish in public housing instead of helping lift their families out of poverty.
10
@FlipFlop black and brown families are not a priority for government. the image of the single mother and the welfare queen is a convenient stereotype that support the narrative of race superiority.
3
Why face facts, when it's easier to deny them?
4
I read this and think How many billions of dollars of the tax payers money did Cuomo and Deblasio give to one of the wealthiest corporations?
We have corporate socialism for the ruling corporate elite while we allow our fellow citizens to live in toxic dumps called public housing. Disgusting!!!
Someone ought to go to jail in both accounts.
8
Warnings about lead poisoning from paint chips have been around since I was a kid in the '60's. I was initially surprised to read that private landlords are more responsive to this problem than public landlords. However, on second thought, having read the various horror stories about NYCHA properties that the Times has published over the years, I guess I'm not so surprised. It seems that a problem is not a problem for NYCHA if you refuse to acknowledge it. Mayor DeBlasio was supposed to be all over this stuff given his background with HUD. Seems we were all wrong.
5
Thanks, NYTimes for this snapshot of life in the big city. Lead paint, still. To say nothing of cockroaches falling out of the cabinets. Inspections, one apartment at a time, 57 million awarded to one family.
And what’s the deal with the little girl wanting stairs so she can get to her bedroom?
With all the supposed brain power residing in NYCity, (Amazon thinks so), where are the creative, organized brain-storming solutions?
One building at a time. Give all residents an allowance to relocate- another nearby city, or area, for.....2 years. Go into the now-vacant building and redo everything- strip it down, new building materials, basics. Bring the residents back. Repeat for all the other buildings. Too expensive? Read again, 57 million- for one family.
There have to be other ideas, solutions. It is, after all, New York, New York.
5
@Jo Williams
Exactly my thoughts. Thanks!
The Department for housing and Urban Development have a unenviable assignment to fix a problem. They're going to put their big heads together for this and decide how funds are allocated prior to 2020.
1
This story made me cry. Imagine the lives ruined by exposure to lead throughout childhood. Those implicated in this massive cover up need to exposed, indicted and imprisoned. These structures need to be evacuated and then torn down. Replaced by modern, housing that meets building code and human code.
6
Because of the scale of the NYCHA, vastly more children were poisoned with lead in NYC than in Flint Michigan. The only difference is that Flint Michigan was under Republican control and hence the bad press.
These are overwhelmingly Democratic constituents living in housing with Democratic inspectors and Democratic politicians. The problem is never going to get better. The plan is deny, deflect and distract until this current DeBlasio Administration is over. This way he can claim a "spotless" record when he runs for national office. (Note for example, DeBlasio promised to build more affordable housing, but the target date of delivery is set deep into next administration, so when it is inadequate, he can blame the next administration).
11
I'm curious about why this hasn't moved on to a higher level. Why are the secretaries of Housing and Urban Development and/or Health and Human Services not looking into it? I'd be very surprised if this is only a problem in public housing in New York. What have they been doing about this problem? Are there no federal laws that require public housing to avoid poisoning children?
6
This is not such a one sided story folks. There’s been a recent rash of liability attorneys who are trying to sue landlords for questionable lead paint exposure by children. Yes, the housing authority is a disaster but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t being targeted by a slick coalition of lawyers out to squeeze the city if some of its money.
5
@Mike L. So the blood test are faked?
5
@Mike L...If the housing authority weren't a disaster, it wouldn't be such a tempting target for those slick, sleazy lawyers looking for some easy pickings from hapless NYC, now would it? Maybe the housing authority could ward off those sneaky lawyers by cleaning up its act. Remediation would be less expensive than litigation, especially when remediation is surely one of the stipulations of any legal settlement against NYCHA. As the commercial jingle went, "Pay me now, or pay me later". Later being lots more expensive and ethically reprehensible.
Yeah. We want the people who run the federal government in charge of housing. Between men who lie about who lives in their buildings and men who want to raise rent for fixed housing, their is reason to believe the federal government would make the situation such a nightmare it would be impossible for people to find any type of housing.
1
Read the research - Eating paint chips not the main source of lead exposure among under 4-years children. Breathing in lead dust from dried out paint is the major source and it effects young children more because their nervous system is still developing. The eating chips story was one used by lead paint manufacturers to blame the victims.
27
Oh well, if you have to weigh the consequences between making some money or the lives of poor children, it's a tough call, you know? It's just poor kids. If their parents want a better life they should go get one. (sarcasm).
12
This is an outrage, and it is heartbreaking. Bravo to the NYT for doing exactly what it should do--expose corruption and willful negligence. People in this agency should lose their jobs, and lawsuits should be filed against the city. This isn't about more or less government. And it certainly isn't about "dumb parents." This scandal is about government agencies that ignore regulations rightfully put in place to protect children's health.
75
You want to see what racism looks like? This is what racism looks like. And classicism. Shameful doesn't even do it justice.
56
This makes my blood boil. If NYCHA is allowing kids to get poisoned by lead they should lose all autonomy and be turned over to the federal government or to private landlords. They cannot manage themselves.
Thanks deBlasio!
6
@Casey Penk - The Federal Government - now run (ruined) by the Grifter in Chief and the GOP. This is what happens after nearly forty years of "government is the problem" attitude (which of course is cover for racism and classicism and plutocracy).
2
Sounds like the inspections stopped under Bloomberg. He's been giving money to a lot of causes lately. I think this is one he should cover, too.
5
This report should result in criminal indictments. No more money it’s time for accountability 140000 out of 176000 units inspected do them all, if this were a private landlord he’d be doing a perp walk. Just fix it 3billion for AMZN and 80million for the people come on !
17
I am an attorney regurlarly involved in litigation against the City. The actions of the City do not surprise me. The Corporation Counsel, the office of all the City attorneys who defend the City in lawsuits, is the most dishonest and unethical law firm I have ever seen. They will do anything to win. And there are rarely any consequences for their dishonest and unethical tactics. The state court judges let them get away with all sorts of nonsense. The federal courts are less tolerant but still tolerate behavior by City attorneys that would result in me being referred for censure or disbarment. It's a culture that is ingrained in the City. If DeBlasio is a real "progressive" and really cares about the people he could put an end to this behavior. But he's not and he won't. It's win at any cost for all of them.
33
How is it that local authorities (eg New York) can get away with this and no one is charged with anything?
To my mind it is incomprehensible in a 1st world country. At the very least independent testing must be the law, in this way it cannot be disputed. What IS going on in the United States, does someone have to die after it is too late.
7
@Leon Nelkin - we should perhaps question if the US is still a first world country. While not a third world country, it should perhaps have its own category: 'Could fix it, but won't because some rich folks may have to pay taxes.'
4
The basic fallacy of socialism: if government takes over a function formerly handled by the private sector government disappears.
5
@acule
The basic fallacy of the private sector: If the private sector takes over a function formerly handled by the government, the poorest and neediest children of society will be cared for as well as the richest.
Obviously there is deep corruption in this department that needs criminal investigation but don’t tell me that without strict government oversight and intervention, the private equity sharks who would have snapped up this real estate, would fix this problem and allow these same needy people to stay at the same rent the city is charging.
Capitalism isn’t the answer. When you show me a Jeff Bezos coming into NYC with his billions ready to pull a Jimmy Carter, renovating and building housing for the city’s poor, then you can lecture us about the fallacy of socialism.
There are poor people who need housing and they’re not going away. Either the obscenely wealthy of the city must deal with it themselves or they should be taxed so the city can deal with it. And the press needs to keep the white-hot light on the city while it does it.
Which raises another question: if this has been going on for years, why is it only now getting press attention?
12
Indict the NYCHA inspectors on child endangerment charges and give them immunity from prosecution if they turn state's evidence against the individuals that perpetuate the neglect.
7
The consequences should be steep for those found liable.
5
Bureaucracy at its worst. NYCHA challenging the results instead of fixing the problems. The Health Department not standing firm on its test results. Result: Children continuing to be exposed to lead all to please the lawyers who were afraid of lawsuits.
8
This tragedy starkly highlights why the huge concentration of wealth in our country is a problem. If the super-wealthy and big corporations actually paid taxes, there would be money available to maintain public housing, repair schools, and fix our subways.
This is our choice: cut taxes for the 1% so they can buy yet another home, boat, or $10,000 coat (looking especially at you, Jeff Bezos); or decide that we value a more just and fair society to which they too must contribute their share.
34
That's an... interesting conclusion. The NYC housing authority and city government in general is corrupt and/or inept so we should give them more money and that will fix everything? Why wouldn't you expect them to squander it to make themselves and their friends richer and more powerful instead of using it to fix problems? Isn't it obvious that public housing is itself the problem?
6
@Jeremy As the article states lighting and roofs are more important than lead.
1
@Jeremy I agree that we can't waste money on corrupt fat cats. But to me the answer to *that* problem is not to eliminate public housing, but to pay attention to what our elected officials are doing, and hold them accountable. That has always been the advantage of public funding over private (for housing or anything else) - that it's possible to hold elected officials accountable. Here's hoping that more of us will reap some wisdom from our current state of affairs, and step up and do just that going forward!
4
My family lived in Sedgwick Apartments in the Bronx from 1964-1974. My sister developed lead poisoning from eating peeling paint chips. Her lead poisoning was revealed after she complained of some symptoms and my mother took her to Mt. Sinai Hospital and she was tested. She did have some learning difficulties, but they were overcome and she graduated college and became a school teacher. I don’t recall if my mother reported the findings to the Housing Authority and there was no treatment done to our apartment to remove the lead. It is sad to hear that children are still being exposed to lead in 2018 and the Housing Authority is refuting the results.
21
Having evaluated (neuropsychological testing) well over 400 children and young adults with toxic lead exposure in Western New York, I am not surprised by the findings in this article. Toxic lead exposure can result in varying degrees of permanent brain damage. Age of exposure, duration, and degree of toxicity seem to be important variables associated with brain damage.
5
Disgraceful. The judge in the federal lawsuit should require an independent assessment of all the
developments to determine the real cost of repair. Then determine whether the costs of repair are justified given the quality of the original construction. Politicians, administrators, bureaucrats & unions that are supported by the operating funds allocated to Nycha are obviously ill equipped to address the problems outlined in this article. That Mr. de Blasio was once a HUD official would laughable if not for the seriousness of this situation. Perhaps the NYT could get the opinions of some of the Brahmins NYC real estate to weigh on whether merely turning over management of the projects to the private sector will address nycha maintenance problems.
3
Just like in Flint Michigan, the people in charge ignore the problems of the most vulnerable: the children.
The ones responsible for this mess should be put in jail for at least 2 decades.
19
Let’s be clear, right or left, Democrat or Republican, organizations lead by those with corrupt intents and/or the intent of staying in office create harm. The government and its related agencies are supposed to be for the people and by the people. Corruption needs to be rooted out at all levels of our Democracy as it is cancer that will eventual destroy everything!
22
@Scott Man
Definitely agree. As a liberal, I’m happy to point fingers and see the book thrown at fellow liberals who sell out children’s lives like this. How dare you run as a Democrat and then act like a self-dealing 1% Republican when children’s health is at stake. Jail time, no matter the political party!
3
Simply shameful. Bloomberg, de Blasio - shame on you.
8
This is a tragic situation. One has to wonder, however, why this important story isn't being headlined across the media in the way the situation in Flint Michigan was handled. Or why, in what was obviously a long-standing investigation, publication comes after the elections.
36
This is an abject lesson to all those who think more government is the answer to all problems.
15
@J. Waddell
Ummm No this is a testament to the folk who constantly reduced operating budgets and didn't want to fix problems of the most vulnerable.
To privatize the agency would make the problem worse and leave the tenets open to rent increases they could not afford. It's appalling what the lack of oversight a substandard budget can allow to happen.
How could an agency fix a problem if they don't have the resources to pay for the fix, is there a tenets advocacy?
I think not.
7
@J. Waddell It's "object," and "lesson to all those who think more government is the answer to all problems" is a straw man fallacy. But other than that, you're good to go!
3
@Alecfinn Yes, rent may and probably should go up, paying for things costs money or have you found a loophole around that?
3
What a scandal. Lead is one of the best-known toxic exposures to developing children. This is outrageous and heartbreaking. Mikaela may be incredibly resilient to lead's effects but there are many children who will suffer physical and mental problems as a result.
13
@Stacie
Over exposure to lead can be treated..by something called chelation. No mention here of this therapy being used on any of the children.
Developmental delays have endless causes. Not everyone can do or think everything
1
@Make America Sane
Chelation does not undo the damage done to the brain by lead and is used only when children have a blood-lead level >46 mcg/dL. It is also very unpleasant.
1
Slightly off-topic, but this is similar to what happened with smoking studies. EPA studies showed that second-hand smoke was not harmful, so they changed the test criteria to get the result (and legislation) they wanted.
3
This is a simmering issue that might have brought down a Republican Mayor based on the frightening class and racial politics involved.
That the Mayor and others have largely avoided the full import and weight of the scandal, in part by using Facebook and tobacco tactics, suggests some interesting issues. One, liberal voters clearly have a kind of tribal mind, too, that protects or inoculates them from conceiving one of their own, elected in part by the strength of communities of color, could so wield municipal power to gross ends. Second, it suggests that the deeper liabilities here likely go quite deep; the city’s attorneys are probably hoping the next mayor can reckon with the full damage, financial and political. This is Flint in New York, after all.
Second and third terms have a habit of crashing down into scandals where bright lines are violated. Anyone following this story has seen those lines run over for a few years now, but maybe now is the time, post-election, to shake out the NY Democratic Party so that it has time to recover by the next campaign.
In the meantime, as with the Amazon HQ, folks might want to take note of where the “tale of two cities” campaign has landed, and why.
22
@J Well, the paint's been there a long time and no Republican mayors were brought down, so that's a dead end. I'm not sure how you deduced that because de Blasio is mayor liberals are pro-lead paint. But de Blasio did announce a clean up plan. Too long to take action? Ok.
NYCHA seems doubly responsible for the problem, first for the initial denial that the housing is the source. Worse is the fact that because of this denial nothing is done to reduce the exposure in the home and the children are with ongoing contact with lead. The Neuro-developmental damage is not reversible nor is the effect on growth. These children are permanently damaged and the longer the exposure the worse the results. There are very few other environmental options that could explain their lead levels. It would need to be a site they frequented often. It's time for the city to address the issue and pay up for the years of negligence.
7
This problem is extensive and far reaching. The City can't do everything.
Encourage tenants to take care of their own lead paint problem and send the bill to the landlord, the City or otherwise, who will have to pay it. As an incentive, offer a tax credit for those who step forward and help themselves. Don't sit around waiting for the City to take care of everything. Do something affirmative.
3
@MIKEinNYC Nycha tells its tenants they will not be reimbursed for work done on their own even if it was done to save to provide for their comfort. such as repairing a broken glass where cold air is coming in during the winter.
Getting rid of lead paint is not as simple as you think for the average person. Ever seen painters paint an entire apartment? You need professional people. I would agree with you if rats were coming in through a hole and they do something affirmative by putting a piece of wood over the hole. But to suggest that people take on stripping lead paint then painting it over on their own shows you're out of touch with reality or just plain clueless.
17
The city "can't do everything"? That's your position? It seems more than able to actively contest its own health dept to avoid paying for clean up but somehow, these tenants, in your mind, can come up with money to have the work done themselves and then successfully be reimbursed by that same city actively denying there's lead? Maybe you should get into some kind of fiction writing as a career.
3
@MIKEinNYC
Your free market, up-by-your bootstraps stance assumes that public housing residents have the money and the access to private lead remediation specialists.
Kids don't choose their race, gender or their economic status. The official lies about lead-poisoned kids feel gut-wrenching.
Protecting NYC's kids -- all kids -- seems a no-brainer.
2
I am EPA certified in lead testing and RRP.
About half of the curriculum is dealing with
lead and the other half is about the legal ramifications.
A large portion of the training is threats from the EPA about what can happen to you in civil or criminal proceedings if you are
in dereliction.
Forging documents is considered criminal according to the program, so why is Shola Olatoye teaching at NYU and not in jail?
88
I have suggested for years that prisoners who lived in impoverished areas be tested for lead poisoning. Lead leaves traces in bones which can be seen by x -ray as beading. I believe that behavioral problems from lead poisining have contributed to incarcenation.
61
@yvette5884 There is evidence that shows higher rates of violent behavior and imprisonment from lead exposure, for example: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050101
The city will be returned with increased crime due to their neglect.
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Everyone knows that a problem that can be resolved by steady attention over a period of time can become a problem that is very hard to resolve when ignored for a long period of time. It is best in life to pay attention and face up to problems and work on them. Tuning the head and covering the eyes by someone in charge is criminal in this case. Now, are these criminal actors in negligence being dealt with or ignored? Does the entire corrupt system still persist? Or is it being papered over instead of eliminated?
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Wanton disregard for health and safety, especially of children, is sickening.
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Shouldn’t, as the ultimate bosses of NYCHA, deBlasio and Bloomberg be in jail now for this awful tragedy?
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What a horrific indictment of NYCHA; what a tragedy for those kids and families. Lawsuits with big settlements will achieve two things: an increase in insurance premiums for nycha (paid for by rent increases) and wealth for a few families. But nothing can restore the normal brain function of those kids disabled by explosure to lead, NOTHING.
I say shame on all those who have enabled and perpetuated this extreme child neglect. They need to spend some time away from the rest of society to ponder their crimes.
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The story about babies and small children "nibbling on paint chips" has been around for decades. We've always been told that children have high levels of lead in their systems for this reason alone and never once have I seen a different explanation for the high lead levels in usually poor, children. Frankly, I don't believe it. It's almost become a stereotype. As if we're being told that these children are so disadvantaged, ill cared for, and most of all HUNGRY, that they eat enough paint chips to cause these high lead levels. Do any of you readers know any baby or child who wouldn't immediately spit out a paint chip that ended up in his or her mouth? The taste of paint isn't pleasant and you'd have to eat a whole lot of it and constantly, to arrive at these lead levels. We need to stop falling for these stereotypical excuses and look into the real reason for the high level of lead in these children's systems!!
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@Opinionist you're telling us you actually tasted paint? Children like to put things into their mouths. That's a known fact. And you don't need to be a parent to be aware of this. There are enough child studies out there to confirm this. There is no gene in the body that dysfunctions that causes high lead levels. It's about toddlers putting paint chips into the mouths and ingesting them.
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@Opinionist Lead paint tastes sweet. And, yes, small children put random things in their mouths.
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Unfortunately, I do know of children so poor that they eat paint chips, paper, chew on cheap Chinese toys still decorated with lead paint, fabric, errant crayons, plastics, and more. I have personally snarked, in talking to a child, “Why is that in your mouth? Is that food? Are you that hungry?” I have personally been told, in response, “Yes,” and it was the most sobering experience I have had in a long time.
Sometimes, what we’re dealing with is not merely a stereotype; sometimes it’s an awful issue that isn’t being taken as seriously as it should be, and the lack of seriousness on the part of our government compels US to think it can’t be real.
This is very real. Our government just doesn’t care about the poor.
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It is a sad commentary on those with power that they would refuse to do the right thing....and would continue to harm Children....in the name of GREED.
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Thank you, NYT, for your reporting here. Wow, does the Housing Authority have a problem. Not only must they remedy the lead conditions in their apartments asap, but they are on the hook for follow-up medical care and long-term intervention and possibly academic and/or behavioral counseling for the children harmed by their criminal negligence.
When American children are harmed in this manner, _all of society suffers. Mistreatment and willful mismanagement on this level cannot stand!
Where is the Mayor’s support for the defenseless children (and surely adults?) harmed by this problem?
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It's not that children are living in apartments which were painted with lead-paint over a half a century ago that is causing this. That's benign. It's that the paint is old and chipping and kids eat paint chips, which is the major contributor of the problem, and dumb parents don't do anything about it.
If my place was painted with lead-paint I'd have it repainted. It's not that difficult. Then, if it was a NYCHA building I'd send the bill to the City. In fact, this problem is so extensive that if I was the mayor of the City, (something that I find easy to imagine), I would encourage the tenants to take care of painting their own places and offer to reimburse them for what they lay out.
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@MIKEinNYC
You cannot just paint over chipped paint. Undisturbed lead can be painted over, but it doesn't remove the problem, it just seals the problem in until the new paint wears.
Once paint is chipped, there is no method to remove it without creating some dust and contaminating other surfaces. Lead remediation is not a DIY job on a rainy saturday, and the law now states it must be done by a certified Lead RRP Contractor. Plus like most things, if you do it wrong, you risk a lot more cost and potential for contaminating others.
As far as "dumb parents", lead chips are tempting to the young because they are sweet tasting, and a little chip can be ingested in a crib or off a carpet even under the most watchful eye.
This is not a problem with lead paint of the 1960s and prior or the tenants, but the neglect of the NYCHA for over 5 generations.
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@MIKEinNYCglad u can afford to have it painted. They can't afford to feed their kids.
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@MIKEinNYC
Lead paint remediation requires a lot more than just taking a brush and slapping on some fresh paint, as you suggest. Your point seems to be that the affected families are too "dumb" (your words) to help themselves which is highly offensive.The last thing we need in this discussion is more ignorance and bias.
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