Andy, Blaz trade barbs over lead

Mayor de Blasio escalated his war of words with Gov. Cuomo by going someplace he probably shouldn’t — the issue of children’s exposure to poisonous lead paint.

It began when Cuomo visited the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City on Saturday and said the city is “abusing hundreds of thousands of children in NYCHA every day.”

Cuomo’s statement seemed like a thinly-veiled swipe at de Blasio, whose administration is accused of covering up dangerous lead levels in more than 800 children in NYCHA projects.

A de Blasio flack responded with a statement dripping with chutzpah.

“We wish the Governor was less obsessed with the mayor and more focused on driving down the childhood-lead-exposure rate in upstate and Western New York,whereexposureratesareas much as 10 times higher than New York City,” City Hall spokeswoman Olivia Lapeyrolerie said.

Upstate Erie County, which includes the city of Buffalo, has been found to have soaring rates of lead poisoning.

Someone in City Hall gave some thought to this statement, issued at about 8:30 p.m. It came about 35 minutes after Lapeyrolerie issued a more measured response to Cuomo’s comments at the Queensbridge Houses, the nation’s biggest public housing project.

“We’re glad that Governor Cuomo’s obsession with the Mayor has the Governor focusing on NYCHA for the first time in his long political career,” that first statement said.