Lawyer: New Haven failed children poisoned by lead

NEW HAVEN — The New Haven Legal Assistance Association has submitted an amended class action complaint that charges the city with failing to ensure timely abatement of lead paint hazards in the homes of young children with elevated lead levels.

Attorney Shelley White charged that the Health Department, for example, did not specifically identify the lead hazards requiring abatement and allegedly misstated the legal authority for its action with regard to the apartment at 103105 Lombard St. where their client, 2yearold Nyriel Smith, lives.

Judge John Cordani, in a class action suit, has already ruled that 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood is the definition of lead poisoning for children under age six and that the city was required to inspect 103105 Lombard St. as to the presence of lead dust, as well as chipping and flaking paint.

The judge has granted class action status to this group of children.

White wrote in the complaint that the city also failed to enforce the requirement that the owners of the apartment at 103105 Lombard St. submit a written lead abatement plan to the Health Department within five days of being notified of the lead hazard and begin the abatement within the time frame required by the state and the city’s ordinance.

Lastly, White said the city should have also enforced the requirement that the owners of the apartment submit a plan for the management of intact lead based paint on the premises within 60 days of the receipt of the inspection report. This ensures that lead paint is properly maintained into the future.

New Haven has lost five cases on lead issues that went to the Housing Court and is now looking to amend its ordinance with a hearing on those changes scheduled for Sept. 12. The New Haven Legal Assistance Association has objected to the proposed changes as giving the health director too much discretion.

The New Haven Legal Assistance Association has already asked the court to give the children living in apartments owned by the New Haven Housing Authority and those units supported by federal Section 8 funds the same lead poisoning protections now afforded other young children in the city protected by New Haven’s ordinance.

Cordani had approved an exception, excluding the authority and Section 8 units, writing that federal statutes and regulations may be preemptive.

NHLAA’s earlier request in August for reconsideration of the class definition pointed to federal Housing and Urban Development regulations. White wrote that those rules “expressly state that public housing authorities are subject to state and local lead laws to the extent they provide greater protections.”

Legal Assistance has estimated that the class of young children who are or will be hurt by lead poisoning at 300 individuals.

The city has been asked if it wants to comment, but its general policy is to not comment on pending litigation.

The city, following the class action ruling, identified more than $400,000 in transfers within the current city budget to allow it to bring the number of lead inspectors up to 8 from 2 or 3.

The Legal Assistance organization has long charged that a major problem at the Health Department is the lack of proper protocols and follow through when toxic levels of lead are found in an apartment where young children are living. They see this as the main issue that goes hand in hand with a lack of inspectors.

“Defendants have no policies or practices for proper lead poisoning hazards protections for the plaintiff class,” White wrote, “as required by city and state law, to: (a) ensure timely lead hazards inspections of the homes of members of the plaintiff class; (b) issue proper abatement orders; (c) ensure the posting of written notice on premises of residential units determined to have lead based paint hazards; (d) identify and inspect homes of children under six years of age located in a building in which another unit has been determined to have leadbased paint hazards; (e) ensure the timely submission and approval of a lead abatement plan for the mandated lead hazards abatement; (f ) ensure abatement of the premises of class members whose homes are determined to have leadbased paint hazards; and (g) ensure implementation of a lead management plan to identify and monitor intact lead based surfaces to ensure that they do not become defective.”

“Such violations of city and state law has caused, and will continue to cause, irreparable injury to Nyriel. She has been and continues to be, poisoned by toxic levels of lead hazards in her home. She suffers from significant development delays and intellectual disabilities, which emerged with regression and loss of language at the age of two when her blood lead levels first tested at above 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood. Defendants have failed to take legally required action necessary to protect and mitigate from continued lifelong neurological injury,” the suit reads.