Lead Poison Lobbying
In December, thirty Sanders, Sanders, Block & Woycik clients and their children spent the day at City Hall, lobbying members of the City Council. About 80,000 infants and toddlers under the age of 6 in this city have elevated lead levels in their blood which can cause stunted growth, learning disabilities, retardation and even death.
The mother's, some carrying their sick toddlers in their arms, came to lobby their elected representative on two separate issues:
- Restoring money cut by Mayor Guliani from the City budget to form lead prevention programs and keep inspectors and emergency repair workers on the payroll.
- To enact Local Law 385 sponsored by Councilman Stanley Michaels and 20 colleagues to add schools, day care centers built before 1978 to locations that the city is obligated to keep lead free.
All cuts in lead prevention make no fiscal sense. Any child who contracts lead poisoning will do poorly in school, slip into costly special education classes and eventually need hospitalization. The cost of treatment are 50 times and more than the cost of prevention -- hiring the inspectors, removing lead from the apartments and public places that kids use.
Many of the mothers have relatively the same story: infants diagnosed with lead poisoning, landlords never bothering to fix their apartments despite being cited with violations by the Department of Health; and the Department of Health's failure to ensure that emergency repair units repairs the apartment required by law.
We are proud to be involved in the fight to end children being poisoned by lead paint chips and dust.
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