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Lead Safe CNY’s Impact on the City of Syracuse Lead Safe CNY's Impact On Syracuse

Lead Safe CNY is removing lead paint to make Syracuse housing safer.

By Timothy Skeval

A broken window in a Syracuse city home. Many homes constructed prior to 1980 are now unfit to live in due to poor construction and lead paint problems.
© 2019 Robyn Smith. Grant Opportunity Manager.

TIM SKEVAL: Lead Safe CNY is meeting with local pediatricians this week to discuss grant opportunities for new lead care machines. Grant opportunity manager
Robyn Smith knows the impact that these new machines can have.

ROBYN SMITH: So that’s the machine that just does the quick finger prick on a child at their well child visit, to see if they have elevated blood lead levels. Some of our, um, local pediatrictians, and family care providers dont have the equipment within their offices to do that. 



SKEVAL: Last week, Lead Safe CNY granted one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the city of Syracuse, to help remove lead paint throughout homes in Onondaga County.



SMITH: We know, that lead is in about 90 percent of the housing stock in Syracuse because it was built before 1980, so we decided to use a multi-pronged approach, which is working through the built environment, so kind of stopping the lead paint where it starts. 



SKEVAL: Lead Safe CNY’s four-year commitment to decrease lead poising rates in children was extended to five-years due to COVID-19. Tim Skeval, NCC News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Lead Safe CNY is striving to create a lead free environment in Syracuse. Lead Safe CNY is an organization that gives grants to other local organizations looking to help with lead poisoning problems.

This week, Lead Safe’s task force committee is meeting with local pediatricians to discuss grants for new lead care machines. Lead Safe’s Grant Opportunity Manager Robyn Smith said these machines can help improve the community.

“So that’s the machine that just does the quick finger prick on a child at their well child visit to see if they have elevated blood lead levels, Smith said. “Some of our local pediatricians, and family care providers don’t have the equipment within their offices to do that.”

A Syracuse home with old paint beginning to fall of the walls, due to poor housekeeping and construction.
South side Syracuse homes continue to fall apart due to poor housing conditions, leaving behind dangerous lead paint chips. (c) 2019 Robyn Smith
© 2019 Robyn Smith. Grant Opportunity Manager

Last week, Lead Safe granted $150,000 to the city of Syracuse to help remove lead paint throughout homes in Onondaga County. A large majority of older Syracuse city homes have lead paint problems due to broken windows, doors, roofs, etc. Smith and the rest of Lead Safe have already created plans to help deal with this.

“We know that lead is in about 90% of the housing stock in Syracuse because it was built before 1980, so we decided to use a multi-pronged approach, which is working through the built environment, so kind of stopping the lead paint where it starts,” Smith said.

Lead Safe originally committed the next four years to help decrease the region’s alarming childhood lead poisoning rates. This plan has been pushed back to five years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, visit the Lead Safe CNY website at https://www.leadsafecny.org/about.html.

 

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