Prevent Lead in Kids’ Homes

Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "childhood lead poisoning prevention and safe housing act of 2018".

§ 2. Legislative findings and purposes. 1. (a) Lead poisoning of children persists as one of the most prevalent and preventable environmental diseases in New York. At least 10,000 children were newly identified with levels of lead in their blood at 10 micrograms per deciliter (ug/dl) in New York state in 2001. Moreover, only about one-third of children are receiving the lead screenings that are required by law and therefore, the actual number of children affected by the ingestion of lead is undoubtedly significantly greater than reported. Prevention is the only effective way to protect children from irreversible damage. Unless lead poisoning is prevented, elevated blood lead levels will result in impairment of the ability to think, concentrate, and learn.

(b) Medical research indicates that children can suffer permanent, irreparable damage at blood levels even lower than 10 ug/dl, and that there is no level of lead ingestion which is without adverse impact. Medical research also indicates that fetal injuries from lead paint can occur if women have elevated blood levels during pregnancy. Because of

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD08197-02-8

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this, intervention measures that wait until children have been exposed have limited benefits, and the pursuit of primary prevention, which means eliminating lead hazards before children are exposed, has been recommended by the United States centers for disease control and prevention and promoted by leading experts in the field as a critical course of action to protect the health of young children.

(c) The predominant cause of lead poisoning in children is the ingestion of lead particles from deteriorating or abraded lead-based paint from older and poorly maintained residences.

(d) Deteriorating lead-based paint or excessive amounts of lead-contaminated dust in these poorly maintained homes endangers the intellectual and emotional development and physical well being of affected children. In addition, unsafe work practices that inadequately control lead dust in the repair or renovation of older homes can cause substantial lead hazards.

(e) Although New York state banned the sale of lead paint in 1970, (l.1970, ch. 338) seventy-four percent of New York's housing stock was constructed prior to 1970. At least ninety percent of lead-based paint still remaining in occupied housing exists in units built before 1960. New York state has both the largest percentage and the largest absolute number of older housing units with lead paint in the nation.

(f) The dangers posed by lead-based paint can be substantially reduced, although not eliminated, by taking measures to prevent paint deterioration and limiting children's exposure to paint chips and lead dust.

(g) The deterioration of lead-based paint in older residences results in increased expenses each year for the state of New York in the form of special education and other education expenses, medical care for leadpoisoned children, and expenditures for delinquent youth and others needing special supervision.

(h) Older housing units remain an important part of New York's housing stock, particularly for those of modest or limited incomes. The problem of lead-based paint in housing affects urban, suburban and rural areas of the state.

(i) The existing housing codes and enforcement systems in most jurisdictions do not include primary prevention measures for lead hazards and have proven ineffective in encouraging widespread lead-based paint hazard abatement, mitigation, and control.

(j) The financial incentives currently in place have not proven sufficient to motivate landlords and other property owners to undertake widespread and effective lead-based paint hazard abatement, mitigation, and control; moreover low and moderate income property owners may not have access to the resources to eliminate or reduce substantially lead hazards.

(k) Insurance companies are reluctant to provide coverage to property owners in the absence of evidence that lead hazards have been appropriately addressed.

(l) Knowledge of lead-based paint hazards, their control, mitigation, abatement, and risk avoidance is not sufficiently widespread, especially outside urban areas.

2. The purposes of this act are: (a) to increase the supply of affordable rental housing in the state of New York in which measures have been taken to eliminate or substantially reduce the risk of childhood lead poisoning;

(b) to ensure that New York's response to lead-based paint hazards focuses on primary prevention as the essential tool to combat childhood

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lead poisoning, and thus to substantially reduce, and eventually eliminate, the incidence of childhood lead poisoning in the state of New York;

(c) to establish and make enforcement of lead hazard control standards in the state of New York more certain and more effective;

(d) to improve public awareness of lead safety issues and to educate both property owners and tenants about practices that can reduce the incidence of lead poisoning;

(e) to provide access to the resources for property owners and landlords who commit to undertake specified lead hazard reduction measures; and

(f) to facilitate the availability and affordability of liability insurance protection to those landlords and other owners who undertake specified lead hazard reduction measures.

§ 3. Section 1370 of the public health law is REPEALED and a new section 1370 is added to read as follows:

§ 1370. Definitions. 1. "Abatement" means any set of measures designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards. Abatement includes the removal of lead-based paint, the permanent enclosure or encapsulation of lead-based paint, the replacement of components or fixtures painted with lead-based paint, and the removal or permanent covering of soil-based hazards.

2. "Affected property" means a room or group of rooms within a property constructed before nineteen hundred seventy that form a single independent habitable dwelling unit for occupation by one or more individuals that has living facilities with permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation. "Affected property" does not include:

(a) an area not used for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, or sanitation, such as an unfinished basement, that is not readily accessible to children under seven years of age;

(b) a unit within a hotel, motel, or similar seasonal or transient facility unless such unit is occupied by one or more persons at risk for a period exceeding thirty days;

(c) an area which is secured and inaccessible to occupants;

(d) a unit which is not offered for rent or incident to employment;

(e) housing for the elderly, or a residential property designated exclusively for persons with disabilities; except this exemption shall not apply if a person at risk resides or is expected to reside in the dwelling unit or visits the dwelling unit on a regular basis;

(f) an unoccupied dwelling unit or residential property that is to be demolished, provided the dwelling unit or property will remain unoccupied until demolition; or

(g) in cities of more than one million population, a multiple dwelling, as defined in section four of the multiple dwelling law.

"Affected property" also excludes any property owned or operated by a unit of federal, state, or local government, or any public, quasi-public, or municipal corporation, if the property is subject to lead standards that are equal to, or more stringent than, the requirements for lead-stabilized status under subdivision three of section thirteen hundred seventy-six of this title, but does include privately-owned properties that receive governmental rental assistance.

3. "Area of high risk" means an area designated as such by the commissioner or his or her representative and consisting of one or more dwellings in which a condition conducive to lead poisoning of children is present or, additionally, any census tract or block group within the

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state where, during any single year, more than twenty-five children have been identified with elevated blood lead levels.

4. "Change in occupancy" means a change of tenant in an affected property in which the property is vacated and possession is either surrendered to the owner or abandoned.

5. "Chewable surface" shall mean a protruding interior windowsill in a dwelling unit in an affected property that is readily accessible to a child under age seven. "Chewable surface" shall also mean any other type of interior edge or protrusion in a dwelling unit in an affected property, such as a rail or stair, where there is evidence that such other edge or protrusion has been chewed or where an occupant has notified the owner that a child under age seven residing in that affected property has mouthed or chewed such edge or protrusion.

6. "Communities of concern" means those thirty municipalities in the state that have the greatest numbers of children identified with elevated blood lead levels in the prior calendar year within the meaning of subdivision fourteen of this section.

7. "Condition conducive to lead poisoning" means: (a) a lead-based paint hazard; and/or (b) other environmental conditions which may result in significant lead exposure, including soil-lead hazards.

8. "Containment" means the physical measures taken to ensure that dust and debris created or released during lead-based paint hazard reduction are not spread, blown, or tracked from inside to outside of the worksite.

9. "Council" means the advisory council on lead poisoning prevention established pursuant to section thirteen hundred seventy-b of this title.

10. "Deteriorated paint" means any interior or exterior paint or other coating that is curling, scaling, flaking, blistering, peeling, chipping, chalking, cracking, or loose in any manner, such that a space or pocket of air is behind a portion thereof or such that the paint is not completely adhered to the underlying subsurface, or is otherwise damaged or separated from the substrate.

11. "Deteriorated subsurface" shall mean an unstable or unsound painted subsurface, an indication of which can be observed through a visual inspection, including, but not limited to, rotted or decayed wood, or wood or plaster that has been subject to moisture or disturbance.

12. "Dwelling" means a building or structure or portion thereof, including the property occupied by and appurtenant to such dwelling, which is occupied in whole or in part as the home, residence or sleeping place of one or more human beings and shall, without limiting the foregoing, include child care facilities for children under seven years of age, kindergartens and nursery schools.

13. "Dwelling unit" means a:

(a) single-family dwelling, including attached structures such as porches and stoops; or

(b) housing unit in a structure that contains more than one separate housing unit, and in which each such unit is used or occupied, or intended to be used or occupied, in whole or in part, as the home or separate living quarters of one or more persons.

14. "Elevated blood lead level" means a quantity of lead in whole venous blood, expressed in micrograms per deciliter (ug/dl), of 10 ug/dl or greater, or such other more stringent level as may be specifically provided in this title or adopted in regulation by the department pursuant to rule or regulation.

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15. "Encapsulation" means the application of a covering or coating that acts as a barrier between the lead-based paint and the environment and that relies for its durability on adhesion between the encapsulant and the painted surface, and on the integrity of the existing bonds between paint layers and between the paint and the substrate. Encapsulation may be used as a method of abatement if it is designed and performed so as to be permanent.

16. "Exterior surfaces" means:

(a) all fences and porches that are part of a dwelling that is or contains an affected property;

(b) all outside surfaces of a dwelling that is or contains an affected property that are accessible to a child under the age of seven and that:

(1) are attached to the outside of such dwelling; or

(2) consist of other buildings that are appurtenant to such dwelling, such as a garage or shed; and

(c) all painted surfaces in stairways, hallways, entrance areas, recreation areas, laundry areas, and garages within a multifamily dwelling that are common to individual dwelling units, one or more of which constitutes an affected property, and are accessible to a child under the age of seven.

17. "Friction surface" means an interior or exterior painted surface that touches or is in contact with another surface, such that the two surfaces are capable of relative motion and abrade, scrape, or bind when in relative motion. Friction surfaces shall include, but not be limited to, window frames and jambs, doors, and hinges.

18. "g" means gram, "mg" means milligram (thousandth of a gram), and "ug" means microgram (millionth of a gram).

19. "Hazard reduction" means measures designed to reduce or eliminate human exposure to lead-based hazards.

20. "Health care provider" means any health care practitioner authorized to order a blood lead test and any facility licensed pursuant to article twenty-eight of this chapter.