NEW YORK— Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Kathryn Garcia today released the City’s Roadmap to Eliminating Childhood Lead Exposure, following a 90-day review of all agencies’ policies related to lead prevention.
The LeadFreeNYC plan will — for the first time — screen every apartment for potential lead hazards, eliminate lead risks in NYCHA apartments and family shelters, target unsafe consumer goods, provide children with dedicated nurses, and link together all City agencies responding to lead exposure.
“Childhood lead exposure is preventable—and this is a plan to eliminate it altogether,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “New York City has driven down the number of kids exposed to lead by 90 percent, and now we will finish the mission. With LeadFreeNYC, we will target every source of exposure, every apartment and every child. We will be there for kids and parents every step of the way, until we drive this problem to zero.”
“Lead exposure is preventable. No child should be adversely affected by where they live,” said Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. “For the last 90 days, I have met with advocates, elected officials, and agency partners to craft a plan to eliminate childhood lead exposure in New York City. We are taking on our legacy of lead head on. Together, these policies and operational changes will create a LeadFreeNYC.”
“As a parent and as a doctor, I’m proud to be part of this comprehensive effort to finally eradicate child exposure to lead in New York City,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Dr. Herminia Palacio. “LeadFreeNYC brings together the right resources and coordination to take us to the next phase, accelerate our progress, and finish the work. Building on our successes, we are putting in place an aggressive set of measures to eliminate sources of lead exposure, and enhance care coordination to help children already identified with elevated blood lead levels. New York City can and will get this done.”
“There is no safe level of lead exposure,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. “Under this plan, we will all redouble our efforts to drive down the number of children with lead exposure in New York City. I urge all parents of children 3 and under to get their child tested for elevated blood lead levels and to call 311 if they have peeling paint in their home.”
“At HPD, it is mission-critical to ensure the quality and safety of our city’s housing stock and protect residents, especially children. That is why we are on the front lines every day, working aggressively to prevent and address the hazards of lead-based paint. More can always be done, and with the launch of LeadFreeNYC, we will further strengthen our enforcement standards and efforts, proactively audit buildings in targeted areas, expand our outreach to owners, and make it easier for them to comply with the law. I applaud the Mayor for his leadership and look forward to working with all our sister agencies to drive lead exposure in our city to zero,” said Housing and Preservation Department Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer.
The Roadmap’s approach is twofold: prevent exposure to lead hazards in the first place, and respond quickly and comprehensively if a child has an elevated blood lead level. To protect New York City kids, the City will increase resources and support for children, parents, and healthcare providers to make sure every child under 3 is tested for lead exposure – and any child who does test positive gets the services they need.
In New York City, public health data points to lead paint and the dust it creates as the primary source of childhood lead exposure. In 2004, the New York City Council enacted Local Law 1 (LL1), which grants the City expansive powers to hold landlords accountable for addressing lead hazards and which helped achieve dramatic declines in childhood lead exposure in NYC. The report details how the City proposes to use the full power of the law to target bad actors and build on LL1 with bold steps, like lowering the lead-paint and dust standards to remove hazards with smaller amounts of lead than ever before, focusing on high-risk neighborhoods for enforcement and outreach, and aggressively increasing the City’s oversight over construction work that poses a risk of lead dust.