{"id":344137,"date":"2026-09-11T17:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344137\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T17:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:08:08","slug":"op-ed-lead-poisoning-is-an-ancient-danger-that-new-yorks-construction-workers-still-face-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344137\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-ed | Lead poisoning is an ancient danger that New York\u2019s construction workers still face today\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

For thousands of years, humans have worked with lead<\/a>. Ancient Egyptians used lead for fishing-net weights, jewelry, beads, solder, domestic utensils, pottery glazes, construction materials, ornaments, decorations, glass, and enamels. Later, Greek and Roman builders also incorporated lead into construction. For example, the Pantheon in Rome was covered with lead roofing by Emperor Constans II in 663 A.D. .<\/p>\n

Today, it is understood that lead is poisonous to humans and dangerous to work with. However, the dangers of lead have been recognized throughout human history. Dr. Herbert L. Needleman notes that German tribes reportedly banned Roman wine because it caused sickness among those who drank it. Likewise, the Greek physician Hippocrates described symptoms consistent with lead poisoning, including loss of appetite, colic, pallor, weight loss, fatigue, irritability, and nervous spasms. The Romans also referred to lead poisoning as \u201csaturnism,\u201d referencing the symptoms with Saturn, the irritable god.<\/p>\n

Centuries later, physicians continued to connect lead exposure with serious illness. In 1763, a physician at the court of King George III wrote that lead fittings used to press cider had caused an outbreak of colic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the early days of America, Benjamin Franklin also recognized the potential danger of lead exposure. In a July 31, 1786 letter to Benjamin Vaughan, Franklin observed that rainwater running over white lead paint could carry lead residue from rooftops into collected water. Specifically, he described a case in which an entire family suffered from \u201cdry bellyach\u201d after drinking rainwater that had been stored in a tank contaminated by lead.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, despite centuries of concern about lead\u2019s toxicity, the Industrial Revolution rapidly changed the predominance of lead in everyday life.\n<\/p>\n

The resulting increase in demand contributed to a rise in industrial diseases, including widespread lead poisoning.\u00a0
\n\"NYCJay Nelson Gorayeb is an attorney with Gorayeb\u00a0and Associates, P.C.Gorayeb & Associates\n<\/p>\n

Today, lead exposure remains a modern public-health concern. According to the EPA, homes built before 1978 are more likely to contain lead-based paint, and two of the most common sources of household exposure are dust and paint chips from deteriorating lead-based paint.<\/p>\n

Even with modern safety procedures and protocols, lead continues to be used in construction. Lead is still used in sheets designed to prevent water penetration, as sheathing material for high-voltage power cables, and in certain roofing materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there exist laws that protect laborers who are required to work with these substances. In New York, the Labor Law \u00a7 241(6)<\/a> requires contractors and owners to comply with specific safety rules during construction, excavation, and demolition work. The statute applies to injuries arising from violations of specific, applicable Industrial Code regulations. Under 12 NYCRR \u00a7 23-1.4(b)(13), lead-abatement work performed as part of a renovation or demolition project can fall within this definition.<\/p>\n

Specifically, N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 12 \u00a7 23-1.26 addresses lead in construction. The law notes that materials containing lead that may lead to toxic fumes cannot be welded in confined spaces. Further, any worker performing cleaning or grinding lead-coated metals must also be provided with an approved respirator.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, regardless of the historical risks of working with lead, workers are all too often provided with inadequate protection. For example, the respirators that these workers are entitled to may not be readily available onsite or may be in faulty condition. Much of the time, safety protocols are ignored on job sites to prioritize speed over safety.<\/p>\n

What compounds this lackluster regard for safety is the historical knowledge that lead is a dangerous material to work with, and the threat of exposure remains persistent in the construction industry. As such, those who have the means to provide the proper safety equipment must not forget what history has shown: lead is dangerous.<\/p>\n

For these reasons, New York remains at the forefront of worker protection. Here, workers have access to legal recourse for when they are in need of help. The labor law allows sick workers to receive the help that they need \u2013 compensation for medical treatment and their suffering.<\/p>\n

As such, when little to no protection is provided for our city\u2019s construction workers who risk lead poisoning or any risk of toxic exposure, for that matter, they ought to continue to have meaningful legal recourse that has existed in this state for over 100 years.<\/p>\n

Jay Nelson Gorayeb is an attorney with Gorayeb\u00a0and Associates, P.C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For thousands of years, humans have worked with lead. Ancient Egyptians used lead for fishing-net weights, jewelry, beads,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[26312,13690,101472,128991,128992,117287,121510,6119,9,24,55,54,128993,56,128994,128995,596,8742,8744],"class_list":["post-344137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-construction-safety","tag-construction-workers","tag-construction-law","tag-industrial-safety","tag-labor-law-2416","tag-lead-abatement","tag-lead-exposure","tag-lead-poisoning","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-labor-law","tag-ny","tag-occupational-health","tag-toxic-exposure","tag-worker-safety","tag-workers-compensation","tag-workplace-injuries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}