Lead Poisoned Fewer NYC Kids Last Year, City Says

NEW YORK — Fewer New York City kids suffered from lead poisoning last year as the city grappled with concerns about how it handled the toxic substance in public housing, new statistics show.

Some 4,717 children younger than 18 were found with elevated levels of lead in their blood in 2018, down 11% from the year before and about 72% from 2010, according to a city Department of Health report released Wednesday.

Some 138 of those kids lived or spent time in public housing, down from 160 in 2017, the preliminary figures show. But the vast majority of the cases came from in private housing, consistent with prior years.

"The number of New York City children with elevated blood lead levels continues to fall to historic lows, but we must continue to work to protect children from lead exposure," Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the city's health commissioner, said in a statement.

About eight in 10 of last year's cases involved children younger than 6, who are at the greatest risk for lead poisoning. Exposure to lead can cause issues such as brain damage, slow development and learning problems.

Some 3,866 kids in that age group, including 112 in New York City Housing Authority developments, had blood lead levels of at least 5 micrograms per deciliter, the Health Department said. That's the amount that triggers a city investigation.

Brooklyn was home to almost half of last year's lead-poisoning cases with 2,157, followed by Queens with 1,277, The Bronx with 819, Manhattan with 289 and Staten Island with 174, the report shows.

Last year's drop continued the steady decline in childhood lead poisoning in recent years. The number of cases of elevated blood lead levels in children younger than 6 has fallen almost 90% since 2005, the Health Department says.

But it came as the number of children tested for lead fell about 3 percent from 2017 to 351,486, the report shows. The Health Department says the city nonetheless has one of the state's highest testing rates, with more than 80% of kids getting tested by their 3rd birthday. And 24% more NYCHA-associated kids age 6 or older were tested last year, the report says.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration started building an effort last year to eradicate childhood lead poisoning after months of scrutiny of NYCHA's handling of the problem in public housing. The housing authority now faces tough oversight from the federal government as it works to address the issue.

The city plans to perform lead inspections at 135,000 NYCHA apartments by the end of next year. That's part of its so-called LeadFreeNYC initiative, which also aims to tackle the problem in private housing, in part by requiring lead paint inspections in one- and two-family homes.