(NYC COMPTROLLER SCOTT STRINGER) October 13, 2019

In New York City, we believe in science. So here’s a fact: lead is poison. There is no acceptable, tolerable, or safe amount of lead exposure – especially for our children. 

And yet, over the last decade, far too many children in New York City had their lives permanently altered by lead exposure. It’s heartbreaking – and it’s enraging.

My office launched an investigation into how this could have happened under the City’s watch. What we found was disturbing.

The City failed to proactively inspect buildings where children who tested positive for lead exposure lived. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had troves of records about children in our city with elevated blood lead levels. Between 2013 and late 2018, DOHMH found 11,972 children who tested positive for lead exposure. The City knew where these children lived – and it knew when three or more children living in the same building tested positive for lead exposure.

But no lead inspector from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development ever checked for lead paint at nearly 10,000 buildings where those children lived. 503 of those buildings had three or more children with elevated blood lead levels. And yet, there was no action. No one connected the dots. No one realized that if multiple children who lived in the same building were testing positive for lead exposure, that building should be inspected for lead. And what’s worse: landlords are getting off easy because they are rarely held accountable for failing to keep the children in their buildings safe from lead.

It’s a failure of City government that goes beyond the pale. It’s absolutely outrageous.

And that failure meant that more children were being put at risk. A total of 2,749 kids tested positive for lead exposure in buildings that were never inspected, even after the City became aware of other cases in their same building.

Any lead poisoning of our children must be treated as a five-alarm fire. If we don’t fix these mistakes right now, more children will be exposed to lead and more families will endure senseless heartbreak.

For them, the children and families of this city, I’ve called on City Hall to commit to a proactive lead inspection approach. These are our babies – and there is nothing more important that we can do as public servants than protect the health of our children.

Source: The Office of New York City Comptroller, Scott Stringer