Lead Poisoning Among NYCHA Kids Spurs Probe By Comptroller

NEW YORK, NY — City Comptroller Scott Stringer launched a wide-ranging investigation Monday into how city agencies handle reports of lead poisoning in children. The probe comes after city officials admitted to the New York Daily News that hundreds more kids living in public housing had tested positive for elevated lead levels than previously acknowledged.

"There is no question that someone or some agency is misleading the public," Stringer said at a news conference.

The city Department of Health knew of 820 kids 5 years old or younger in New York City Housing Authority complexes who were found with 5 to 9 micrograms per deciliter of lead in their blood from 2012 through 2016, the New York Daily News reported Saturday.

That's despite claims from Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration that fewer than two dozen kids had elevated lead levels between 2010 and 2016.

Stringer said his office would examine "policies and protocols concerning lead and children" across multiple city agencies, including the Department of Health, NYCHA and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The investigation will examine practices not just for public housing but also certain private housing, shelters, daycare centers, parks and playgrounds, he said.

"We want to create a trail to know exactly how the Department of Health — how they contacted parents and why they didn’t contact other agencies, especially the New York City Public Housing Authority," Stringer said. "We also want to take this investigation a step further. What’s happening in NYCHA could be happening in other buildings around the city."

Since 2012, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reportedly recommended public health officials work to find possible sources of lead exposure when any kid age 5 or younger has a blood lead level of at least 5 micrograms per deciliter.

But the city reportedly used a threshold twice that for years. While the Department of Health has generally told parents when their children had lead levels of 5 to 9 micrograms, it only notified NYCHA and inspected apartments when kids were found with at least 10 micrograms, according to the Daily News.

The city didn't switch to the 5-microgram standard until January after federal housing officials began encouraging its use, the Daily News reported.

Exposure to lead can cause brain damage, slowed development and problems with learning, behavior, hearing and speech, according to the CDC.

The Department of Health will now conduct a follow-up investigation when any child younger than 18 tests positive for at least 5 micrograms per deciliter regardless of where they live, the mayor's office announced Sunday. The investigations have already started in public housing and will expand by the end of the year, officials said.

Stringer's investigation comes less than a month after NYCHA admitted in a settlement with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office to falsely telling federal authorities it had performed lead inspections for years when it had not done them.

The number of lead-poisoned kids reported by the Daily News dwarfed previous estimates.

Federal prosecutors said last month that at least 19 children with lead poisoning were exposed to toxic lead paint in their NYCHA apartments from 2010 to 2016. Dr. Herminia Palacio, the deputy mayor for health and human services, similarly told City Council lawmakers in December that 19 kids were found with elevated lead levels in that time period.

Stringer said he was unaware of the discrepancy between the city's 10-microgram threshold and the CDC's recommendation. The higher number of affected kids was kept "hidden in plain sight" even amid continuing discussions about lead poisoning, he said.

A mayoral spokeswoman, Olivia Lapeyrolerie, said Stringer "seems to be reacting to a tabloid headline instead of concrete public health evidence."

"The CDC guidance is clear, and the Health Department has always followed it," Lapeyrolerie said in a statement.

De Blasio, a Democrat, defended his administration in an impromptu NY1 interview Monday afternoon, just just before going on vacation for most of the next week.

He said the CDC's 5-microgram standard is "actually a very low level of exposure."

"A child at that level, if they are caught early, we can make sure that the problem is isolated and that the child does not suffer from long-term consequences," the mayor said, according to a transcript of the interview. "That’s why that early detection is crucial."

The Department of Health has "aggressively followed up" in all cases of lead poisoning, de Blasio said, which have declined nearly 90 percent since 2005. The mayor maintained that kids can be exposed to lead in a variety of places, not just their homes.

The city has released citywide data on lead poisoning "in composite" even though it has not reported numbers specific to NYCHA apartments, de Blasio said.

The mayor also rebuffed City Councilman Ritchie Torres' reported call on Monday for Palacio's resignation, saying she "has been doing all the right things to try and address this issue."

The revelations come at a turbulent time for NYCHA, which houses about 400,000 New Yorkers in more than 300 developments.

The housing authority's interim chairman, Stanley Brezenoff, just started last month after the resignation of Shola Olatoye, who faced scrutiny over the lapse in lead tests and widespread heat failures this winter.

The settlement with federal prosecutors forced the city to spend more than $1 billion on NYCHA in the coming years and will give the housing authority an independent monitor. And a new analysis shows the NYCHA's buildings need $31.8 billion worth of capital repairs, most of which will likely go unfunded, Politico New York reported Monday.

(Lead image: Public housing is seen in Brooklyn in June 2018. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)