City, county focus on safety from lead
An informational session on lead remediation and preventing lead poisoning will be held next week.
The session, led by Kingston and Ulster County officials and members of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. June 13 in City Hall, 420 Broadway, according to Brenna L. Robinson, director of the city’s Office for Community and Economic Development.
Robinson’s office provides a housing rehabilitation program that has $250,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant money. In all,
the office received $670,000 this year for a variety of programs and initiatives.
Some of the $250,000 can be used for lead remediation in older homes if an applicant is income-eligible and if lead remediation is recommended, Robinson said.
Part of the June 13 program will focus on Ulster County’s “Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.”
The Ulster County government website says the program is designed to prevent lead exposure.
“The goal of the Ulster County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program is to protect your family from lead,” the website states. “We provide free home lead inspections and educate the community about the dangers of lead-based paint, how lead affects our bodies, how to identify lead paint hazards and how to use leadsafe work practices to appropriately deal with lead paint hazards, so that we have no more lead-poisoned kids . ...
“Lead is not good for anyone,” the site says. “However, it is most dangerous to children age 6 or younger and to pregnant women.”
The county warns that children “can get lead into their bodies by swallowing lead-paint dust or flakes through normal hand-tomouth activity or by breathing in lead dust or eating paint chips. Very young kids who crawl on the floor and put their hands and toys in their mouths are at the highest risk.”
Lead poisoning can damage the brain and cause permanent learning and behavioral problems, the county site says.
“Even low levels are harmful,” it says. “Environments with deteriorated lead-based paint that is chipping or peeling are hazardous. Disturbing lead paint through renovation also creates lead hazards.”