Where To Test Lead Paint Onondaga County

Urban center

Over 9% of children in Onondaga County show elevated levels of pb in claret

Yiwei He | Illustration Editor

In 2020, the percentage of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood was about four%, less than one-half of the city'southward rate.

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In November 2018, Darlene Medley received a letter in the mail from her medico proverb her 2-yr-old twin sons had been poisoned past lead.

Medley, her twins and her seven other children had been living in a rented house on the northside of Syracuse for several months. As part of state-mandated lead testing, the twins received tests that involved a prick on the finger to draw blood.

The Onondaga County Health Section defines an elevated claret level of lead every bit annihilation higher than five micrograms per deciliter of blood.

One twin'southward examination showed nine micrograms, Medley said. The other'south showed 12.

Despite the presence of atomic number 82 in the paint of Medley's home, her landlord did not provide her a hotel or some other holding. Instead, Medley and her 9 children remained in the house as the landlord hired contractors to paint over the cracks in the lead pigment on her wall.

The family still lives in the house, and the twins encounter with a mental health therapist weekly to monitor their development.

"When I was younger, pb poisoning — you heard about it, but it wasn't really a thing," Medley said. "So that's why I wasn't really worried near it until the health department started showing upwards and they're talking almost how it affects the brain. … Now I demand to pay attention. Now I need to mind."

Most 9% of children tested for lead poisoning in the city of Syracuse in 2020 had elevated levels, according to information published by the Onondaga County Health Section.

The percentage of children in Onondaga Canton with elevated levels of pb in their blood has decreased dramatically in the past few years — in 2012, the rate exceeded 17% in Syracuse. Simply throughout the viii years — from 2012 to 2020 — that the data covers, the metropolis shows a significantly higher proportion of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood than Onondaga Canton every bit a whole.

So that's why I wasn't really worried about it until the health department started showing upwardly and they're talking about how it affects the encephalon

Darlene Medley, Families for Pb Liberty Now

In 2020, the percentage of children with elevated levels of atomic number 82 in their blood was almost 4%, less than half of the urban center's charge per unit.

Dr. Indu Gupta, Onondaga County's health commissioner, said young children should be tested regularly to catch higher levels of atomic number 82 exposure early.

New York state requires the testing of all children for lead poisoning at the age of i and two and a risk assessment at each visit from birth to age 6, co-ordinate to the county Health Department'south website.

Gupta said loftier levels of exposure to pb could slow down a child's intellectual and physical development.

"They are subtle signs," she said. "Information technology impacts your growth and development, which impacts the encephalon. So that'southward why in that location's so much focus on information technology at this betoken, and information technology'due south a public health issue."

While the city's rate for elevated levels of lead is ix%, levels drastically vary in different areas of the city.

Data published by CNY Vitals, which creates data visualizations for public wellness issues in the region, shows downtown and urban areas of the city have much higher lead exposure levels than suburban areas. In Demography Tract 54, which is southwest of Syracuse University, over 26% of children had elevated levels in 2018.

Ivana Xie | Asst. Digital Editor

Demography Tract 54, according to U.S. Demography data, has a population of 2,376 — almost 36% of whom are below the poverty line.

Frank Ridzi is the vice president of Cardinal New York Customs Foundation, which advocates for specific issues including safe housing through initiatives such as CNY Vitals. The higher charge per unit of lead exposure in downtown areas is a result of older housing, he said.

In 1978, the federal government passed a law banning consumer use of lead-based paint. But homes built earlier that year are more likely to take atomic number 82 in their pigment, Ridzi said.

"The urban center is much older," Ridzi said. "A lot of suburbs take newer housing. Plus, in that location is a socioeconomic difference in that there's more than poverty in the city."

Since it merely takes a tiny amount of atomic number 82 to expose a child to dangerous levels, Ridzi said, the community has to practice improve to eliminate contact points like loftier friction surfaces that could erode to reveal lead paint underneath.

"We definitely want to see (the percentages of children with elevated lead levels) go down to zero. Information technology's completely preventable," he said. "Information technology's undermining all the other investments that we as a customs are making in our children's future."

Tenants of housing complexes in Syracuse regularly reach out to Palmer Harvey, founder of the Syracuse Tenants Union, to say their child got ill from issues with their house. Only those cases rarely consequence in holding the landlord accountable, she said.

Harvey said the power dynamic between landlords and tenants, particularly in depression-income areas of the city, means tenants are agape to fight back.

"It's a fear-based arrangement," Harvey said. "They're and so afraid they're going to be kicked out. They're worried most leaky rooms, but what near that pigment that'south chipping on the wall? They don't know."

Over three years after she found out her twin children had been poisoned by lead, Medley now works with Families for Lead Freedom Now, an advancement group in the metropolis. She said the power dynamic between landlords and tenants needs to change, especially when flaws in the belongings crusade irreparable impairment.

"(I wish landlords would say) 'You know what? I would hate for this to happen to my children. I'm sad,'" she said. "But instead they're going to keep looking at me as a article."

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