NYC Elevated Blood Lead Levels
Lead has no function in the human body. No level of lead is considered safe, especially in children and pregnant women. New York City was ahead of federal law when the city banned lead paint in 1960. Federal law banned lead paint in 1977. Over the decades, the buildings with lead paint aged and the paint began peeling. Lead poisonings continued and in 2004, NYC passed Local Law 1 of 2004, the Lead Poisoning Prevention Law.
The law is targeted at reducing the risk of exposure to lead paint in children under 6 years old. The Law assumes lead paint exists when three conditions are met:
- The building was built before 1960.
- The building has tenant-occupied rental apartments.
- The dwelling-unit contains a child under 6 years of age.
What is unique for the Law is the automatic lead test failure that is built into the inspection of dwelling units. When a city inspector cannot enter a unit for a lead paint test, the unit automatically fails and must provide proof that there is either no lead through a laboratory test of a paint sample, or must prove that identified lead paint was remediated by a certified lead specialist.
All landlords are required to obtain documentation from renters if there is a child under 6 living in the unit. If an apartment unit contains a child younger than 6 years of age, the landlord is required to test the unit for lead paint. All documentation, including tests and remediations if lead is found, must be saved and available when requested by the city's inspectors.
All these steps and processes for protecting children from lead paint seem to have worked. Childhood blood poisonings have dropped dramatically since the law was enacted in 2004. Every year has seen lower and lower levels of elevated blood lead in children throughout the city.
But when the data are mapped, something strange emerges: there's a contraction, with levels decreasing everywhere and almost coalescing in the area surrounding Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The distribution of decreases in rates seems to lag in Brooklyn and stays higher compared to other areas of NYC.
Official documents from the city and studies from researchers demonstrate that children living in public housing, housing provided through NYCHA, are less likely to have elevated blood lead levels. While briefly mentioning borough data, studies have not addressed why Brooklyn continues to have the highest rate of elevated blood lead levels.
So the question is: was Brooklyn, specifically Greenpoint, left behind? And if so, what could have caused the blood lead levels to stay higher?
Change in rate of elevated blood lead levels between 2005-2016
The change in rate shows that overall blood lead levels throughout New York City have decreased dramatically since the implementation of Local Law 1 of 2004.
First, let's compare the numbers from Greenpoint Brooklyn, to the neighborhood that has the lowest rate of elevated blood lead levels in the city: The Upper East Side
| Neighborhood | Positive for EBLs | Negative for EBLs | Total | Odds ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenpoint | 216 | 3984 | 4200 | 0.0542 |
| The Upper East Side | 14 | 3886 | 3900 | 0.0036 |
| Total | 230 | 7870 | 8100 | 15.05 |
Children in Greenpoint were 15 times more likely to have elevated blood lead levels compared to children living in the Upper East Side.
There are more Black residents in Greenpoint, and the residents in Greenpoint tend to have less education than residents found in the Upper East Side. But the poverty rate, unemployment rate, and English literacy are about the same. Children in Greenpoint were more likely to be obese, but children in the Upper East Side had higher rates of asthma and asthma-related emergency hospitalizations.
Is there a significant difference between Greenpoint and the Upper East Side that can explain the disparity in rates? Local Law 1 of 2004 had two mechanisms to identify children at risk:
- Building age
- Lead violations
The building ages in a neighborhood did not reflect the blood lead levels of a neighborhood. We should see an increase in the rate of elevated blood lead levels with older buildings, but that relationship does not exist. But may be that the children live in buildings that have already been fixed and have no lead violations or that they live in newer buildings.
But the number of lead violations also do not match the rate of elevated blood lead levels of a neighborhood. More lead violations in a neighborhood should come with higher rates of elevated blood lead levels, but the data does not show this trend.
Some other element about a neighborhood is influencing the rate of lead poisonings - something that current data collection methods have not captured.
There are a few potential sources that need to be tested.
- Soil could contain lead and other metal contaminants. Old industry, especially coal powered factories, could have deposited lead into the area. The buildings that exist now are built on top of a potential legacy of contamination that has not been addressed.
- Lead service pipes for water may still be leeching small amounts of lead into tap water. NYC is working to remove all lead service pipes, but the process is long and expensive.
- Trucks, tankers, ships, and other heavy equipment may release lead and other contaminants into the air in the area. If there is a lot of industrial activity in a neighborhood, there could be higher levels of environmental lead and a higher rate of elevated blood lead levels.
- Demolition of older buildings can create lead-dust that settles in the surroundings. Without proper containment, debris and dust can escape a construction site and lead to exposure to lead and other contaminants.
These exposures are indiscriminate; all children living in Greenpoint are being exposed to lead. However, families with access and means to better housing can leave the neighborhood, leaving behind the families that cannot afford to leave. The families being left behind need help. Their children are suffering the consequences of lead poisoning.
Legislation updates to Local Law 1 of 2004 should begin expanding the criteria for identifying children at risk of lead exposure. A recent update to the law may help to address children left behind in the original law.
Starting in February 2021, Local Law 1 of 2004 now also applies to tenant-occupied, one- and two-unit buildings. This type of housing may be over-represented in the neighborhoods with continued elevated blood lead levels, like Greenpoint. Future studies should be able to identify whether the update led to a greater reduction in lead poisonings.
If the rates still remain high, then the law should be updated again to address environmental lead exposures as well.
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