{"id":7656,"date":"2018-07-06T14:21:54","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T18:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10028\/uncategorized\/nyc-officials-admit-they-ignored-lead-poisoning-issues\/"},"modified":"2022-08-18T21:16:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T01:16:16","slug":"nyc-officials-admit-they-ignored-lead-poisoning-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/article\/nyc-officials-admit-they-ignored-lead-poisoning-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Officials Admit They Ignored Lead Poisoning Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although <\/span>over 800 children<\/span><\/a> in City housing projects tested positive for potentially lethal lead levels, city officials did not follow-up on the results.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency lowered lead exposure standards from 10 micrograms to 5 micrograms. But officials with the city health department and New York City Housing Authority continued to use the old standard. So, the City government did nothing to help these families. Now that attention focused on the problem, \u201cThe Health Department has already begun to conduct these investigations for children in public housing and will begin implementing beyond that by the end of the year,\u201d according to a press release. Officials also bragged that they had reduced lead levels by 90 percent since 2005. But that simply means that the problem was much more widespread than originally believed.<\/span><\/p>\n

After victims filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, Mayor Bill DeBlasio almost immediately ordered the NYCHA to spend an additional $2.2 billion to clean up the lead poisoning problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lead Poisoning in New York<\/h2>\n

This metal is cheap and plentiful, so building contactors used it as much as possible. Their lobbyists fought hard to keep lead pipes legal for as long as possible. Largely as a result of their efforts, <\/span>Congress did not ban lead plumbing until 1986<\/span><\/a>. That\u2019s almost a decade after lawmakers ordered lead to be removed from paint. Furthermore, the pipe ban came almost two decades after President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act. That act lowered lead levels in the atmosphere by about 90 percent. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s not too surprising that NYC officials were slow to act on concerns of lead poisoning. Lawmakers have known for years that this heavy metal is harmful. Yet for some reason, plumbing supplies were immune from regulation years after other measures took effect. A few of these harms include:<\/span><\/p>\n