In addition to these measures, federal officials also announced this week that they are proposing tighter standards for how much lead is considered hazardous for health in older buildings and child care facilities. The threshold for lead treatment would drop to anything above 0 micrograms of lead per square foot of space on high-touch surfaces such as floors and window sills, based on the news report.
One of the council’s bills would expand the scope of lead paint inspections to include apartment buildings’ common areas as well as the affected child’s residence. Inspectors will have to search for lead paint hazards along the entire path from the building’s entrance to the unit’s front door including hallways and elevators.
The second bill will require the city’s health department to share quarterly data on landlords (building owners and building managers) including the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) (the Projects) who disagree with orders from the city to fix peeling lead paint. A City Council data tracker states that more than 111,000 lead-based paint violations were issued across the five boroughs between 2018 and March 2023.
This change can protect as many as half a million children per year nationwide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) estimates. Safety experts and advocates alike have welcomed these changes and have called for more investment in the city’s health and housing departments to reflect their increased workloads.
Lead was a common ingredient in paint up until the late 1970s. It is a toxin and is particularly dangerous for young children. It has the potential to cause irreversible brain damage and lifelong learning problems. Dust from the deteriorating lead paint can collect on floors and windowsills where it can be easily ingested/inhaled by children. Since 2004, the number of New York City children with elevated lead levels has dropped by 90%.
That’s when the city began collecting data under the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act. More than 2,500 children in the city tested positive for elevated lead levels in 2021, according to the city’s health department. City statistics also show that those children are typically nonwhite and live in lower-income neighborhoods. Asian, Black and Latino children accounted for more than 4 out of every five children found to have higher blood lead levels in 2021 and those living in low-income neighborhoods made up nearly 90%.
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 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://gothamist.com/news/stronger-rules-against-lead-paint-could-be-coming-soon-to-nyc