New York City buildings constructed before 1960 are presumed to contain lead paint. While only proper testing can confirm its presence, a new tool allows users to enter an address and see when a property was built—what its creators say is a “starting point” for tenants and building owners to investigate further.
A lead paint testing tool. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)
It’s been more than
In 2024, according to the city’s Health Department,
“Education around lead, and especially lead paint hazards, is something that still is really necessary,” said Kielbasa. “People think of it as something that’s been dealt with already, and there’s still about 5,000 kids a year who are poisoned in New York City. And we’re finding out more and more every day about how it’s bad for adult health, and that’s not really being tracked, honestly.”
The information is definitely intended to be a starting point. And you know the truth is, is that even buildings that are supposed to not have any lead paint in them that were built after 1960 turn up after being tested to have lead paint in them, because the national band was 1978 and New York State, I believe, was 1970 even so, oh, wow, yeah. So I think you have contractors that you know came in from or had stockpiles of the lead paint and just decided to use it. Might have had contractors working in other states, in New Jersey or Connecticut, who brought in whatever they had and just decided to use it.
the kind of rule of thumb that we use as advocates is, the older the building, the more there is typically, you know, because there’s stronger chance that it was used further back, and there might be more layers of it too
“friction surfaces” — window and door frames
even though, in many cases, if you have an old property where the paint is kept up, the friction surfaces are particularly dangerous, because over time that the abrasion that happens between the door and the door frame wear down the paint, and you can then expose the under layers of paint and create microscopic dust that, you know, basically gets, you know, sits down into the area below the door or window and then gets tracked through your old apartment. And, you know, it’s not the best scenario for anybody in the home, but if you have a child in the home, it’s particularly dangerous.
if you have a child in the age of six, landlord is already supposed to be doing an annual inspection of that unit, so coming in each year and looking at the painted surfaces, making sure they’re intact, to make sure there’s no chips appealing paint. So they should be doing that too