Six months late on stricter lead tests

NYCHA was six months late in implementing stricter federal guidelines for lead-paint inspections, officials admitted Wednesday.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s tougher regulations were announced on Jan. 13, 2017, and were supposed to kick in on July 13, 2017.

But NYCHA didn’t implement the policy until January 2018.

The new regulations lowered the threshold for triggering apartment inspections for lead paint to five micrograms per deciliter for kids under 6.

The city had previously inspected NYCHA apartments only when kids in them registered 10 micrograms or higher.

“This important change to HUD’s Lead Safe Housing Rule will allow for a faster response when a young child . . . is exposed to lead-based paint hazards in their HUD-assisted homes, a key component of a primary prevention strategy,” HUD said in a January 2017 press release.

City officials told The Post they were six months late in implementing the new mandate because it took time for NYCHA and the Health Department to formalize how the new inspections would work. NYCHA didn’t announce its move to a lower threshold until this past June 30.

Asked why the city chose not to publicize its compliance with the new HUD regs in January, Mayor de Blasio disagreed that it was a conscious decision.

“I don’t agree with that statement,” he said Tuesday. “We have been constantly communicating as we learn things, as we refine strategies.” Hours later, his spokesman Eric Phillips tweeted, “NYCHA should have told the public in January, for sure.”