 | "As America’s old industrial city centers are gentrified and renovated, we are experiencing the second wave of a lead poisoning epidemic." -Emma Talamantes |
Imagine: you are a lower middle-class worker living in Oakland with your family. You live in the Fruitvale in an older duplex with another family. One day, your new next door neighbors decide to repaint their house. The next week, when your kids go to their yearly checkup, they find traces of lead in their blood.
Little did you know, the majority of houses on your block are still have lead paint. When your new neighbors sanded their house, it released toxic dust into the air which your children inhaled, exposing them to a multitude of side effects including a decrease in IQ and seizures, as well as placing them at a higher risk for ADHD—and at very high levels, could have caused death. Unfortunately, there is only one solution to lead poisoning: removal from exposure. For you and many other working class families, this is not an option. When you try to go to your landlord to complain, you are threatened with eviction. Sixty-one percent of houses with high lead exposure levels are rentals, as few property owners take care of their properties with the same quality of life standards they themselves live within.
Unfortunately,there is no treatment or vaccine for lead poisoning, and there are no drugs which could reverse its effects currently available. According to the New York Times, “A baby exposed to lead can experience impaired cognition and reduced impulse control. The likelihood that a child will have symptoms of attention-deficit disorder increases substantially. Put simply, exposure may result in a kid who is prone to violence and not as smart.”
Little did you know, the majority of houses on your block are still have lead paint. When your new neighbors sanded their house, it released toxic dust into the air which your children inhaled, exposing them to a multitude of side effects including a decrease in IQ and seizures, as well as placing them at a higher risk for ADHD—and at very high levels, could have caused death. Unfortunately, there is only one solution to lead poisoning: removal from exposure. For you and many other working class families, this is not an option. When you try to go to your landlord to complain, you are threatened with eviction. Sixty-one percent of houses with high lead exposure levels are rentals, as few property owners take care of their properties with the same quality of life standards they themselves live within.
Unfortunately,there is no treatment or vaccine for lead poisoning, and there are no drugs which could reverse its effects currently available. According to the New York Times, “A baby exposed to lead can experience impaired cognition and reduced impulse control. The likelihood that a child will have symptoms of attention-deficit disorder increases substantially. Put simply, exposure may result in a kid who is prone to violence and not as smart.”
What we are witnessing now is what many call the “lasting legacy of toxic lead.” It’s victims: developing children from lower class neighborhoods, with old, dilapidated houses. In neighborhoods like the Fruitvale, protocol for lead poisoning prevention is either ignored by landlords and property owners or is virtually non existent. As America’s old industrial city centers are gentrified and renovated, we are experiencing the second wave of a lead poisoning epidemic. These old, preventable hazards are being exposed to new generations of children.
The majority of the houses in low income and minority urban neighborhoods were built predating the 1978 mandate outlawing the use of lead paint. Before the 1970s, lead was commonly used in paint, pipes, and other general infrastructure because of its anti corrosive nature. Because the effects of the poisoning are so slow, no one at the time really knew how dangerous it was. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), “Today, childhood lead poisoning is considered the most preventable environmental disease among young children, yet approximately half a million U.S. children have blood lead levels above 5 micrograms per deciliter.”
This is not to say that our country hasn’t made progress, as most of our problems with lead poisoning at the county level seem nonexistent. According to Michael Pell, a data journalist from Reuters, it is this lack of scrutiny that lets neighborhoods such as the Fruitvale go unnoticed. By looking at lead problems at the county level, we mask the individual problems that neighborhoods are experiencing.
This is not to say that our country hasn’t made progress, as most of our problems with lead poisoning at the county level seem nonexistent. According to Michael Pell, a data journalist from Reuters, it is this lack of scrutiny that lets neighborhoods such as the Fruitvale go unnoticed. By looking at lead problems at the county level, we mask the individual problems that neighborhoods are experiencing.
The solution? Test blood for lead more frequently across zip codes, making it easier to prevent the irreversible effects of lead poisoning from wreaking havoc on our children. In addition, hold property owners more liable for taking care of their property without infringing on the status of their renters/dislodging them.
