The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced more than $160 million to some jurisdictions in New York. According to Spectrum News, the money will go toward testing older homes for lead paint as well as evaluating young children for lead poisoning symptoms. Officials said with these grants, they are also trying to emphasize that lead poisoning is “100% preventable” and can be done with “a little bit of education and a lot of effort.”
Lifting Up Marginalized Communities
The work involves identifying and testing homes built before 1978 when lead paint use in construction was banned at the federal level. It also includes testing young children for lead poisoning. Data also shows that income and poverty levels play a significant role in child lead poisoning.
Health leaders say the grant money will not only help improve children’s health, but also improve the appearance of neighborhoods, increase property values, attract new business in these areas and stimulate local economies. Lead paint hazards tend to be concentrated in low-income neighborhoods and marginalized communities. Addressing these hazards, officials and advocates believe, would be a positive step toward environmental justice.
Childhood Lead Poisoning
Lead exposure can cause severe problems in young children. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lead exposure could seriously harm a child’s health and cause adverse effects such as damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems and hearing and speech problems.
Increased lead levels may lead to lower IQ, inability to focus or pay attention, and underperformance in school for children. The health effects of exposure are more harmful to children under the age of 6 because their bodies are still developing and rapidly growing. Young children also tend to put their hands or other objects, which may be contaminated with lead dust, into their mouths. So, they are more likely to be exposed to lead compared with older children.
New York City’s Lead Laws
New York City has a set of regulations and requirements aimed at addressing lead-based paint hazards in residential properties, primarily to protect the health and well-being of children and families.
Some of the key provisions of the New York City Lead Law include:
Lead inspection and testing: Property owners are required to annually inspect and test for lead-based paint hazards in apartments built before 1960 where a child six years of age or younger resides.
Lead hazard repairs: If lead hazards are found, landlords (building owners) are obligated to repair them promptly. This may include removing or encapsulating lead paint.
Disclosure: Property owners must provide tenants with annual lead hazard information pamphlets and records of any lead inspections and repair.
Tenant rights: Tenants have the right to request lead inspections, and landlords (building owners) must conduct these inspections within a specified time frame.
Enforcement: The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) enforces these regulations through inspections and penalties for non-compliance.
Education and outreach: The law also includes provisions for lead poisoning prevention education and outreach programs.
New York Lead Poisoning Lawyer
Whether you have been living as a tenant at a private apartment complex or in a public housing unit (the Projects), please remember that you have legal rights. If your child has been diagnosed with high blood lead levels, regardless of whether you live in public or private housing, you may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit against the NYCHA (the Projects) or private landlords (building owners and building managers) for damages. Those who have been affected can seek compensation for damages including medical expenses, cost of diagnostic tests, permanent injuries, lost income and benefits, disabilities, past and future pain and suffering, etc.
If your child has been affected by lead poisoning, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you.
Our law firm recovered $1,162,500 for a child who suffered lead poisoning from paint in her apartment. The child’s injuries were subtle and difficult to recognize. We recovered $162,500 above the $1 million dollar total insurance policy in this case. Despite the judge’s efforts to settle the case for $950,000, we fought hard and recovered $162,500 more than the insurance policy of one million dollars. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury, lead poisoning and medical malpractice cases including, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and cerebral palsy cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
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Source: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2023/10/26/federal-grant-to-help-prevent-lead-exposure