Lead In Greenpoint Backyards Puts Children At Risk, Columbia Study Finds

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — Many Greenpoint backyards contain dangerously high levels of lead that put the neighborhood’s children at risk, according to a preliminary study from Columbia University.

Graduate students from Columbia’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences recently released a study that found 92 percent of the backyards in Greenpoint had levels of lead higher that the EPA limit.

The study might explain the Health Department’s findings that children in Greenpoint are four times more likely to suffer from lead poisoning than in any other neighborhood, researchers said.

“Kids are really the concern there,” said Franziska Landes, the grad student who lead the study. “Backyards are often not tested for lead in soils, but they could be harboring high levels of contamination that kids could be exposed to.”

Landes and her team collected 264 samples from 52 backyards across New York City since the study began in the spring. The students found most yards in Greenpoint contained high lead levels and several had higher lead levels than the polluted mining communities Landes studied in Peru.

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Landes believes this could explain why 5 percent of Greenpoint children have lead levels that exceed the point when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend public action.

Children are most at risk to suffer the ill effects of lead poisoning — which may include lower IQ scores, developmental delays and behavioral issues — because they are most likely to ingest it, said Landes.

“They like to play in the dirt and then stick their toys in their mouth or suck their thumbs,” she said. “And they’re not always washing their hands in between.”

Many of the volunteers who donated dirt samples in Greenpoint signed up because their children had tested high with lead, according to the report.

The report suggests that concerned parents get their backyards tested before allowing children to play in the dirt and pointed homeowners toward a Cornell University guide to maintaining safe soil.

News of the study spurred borough representatives to call for government action. City Councilman Stephen Levin told Gothamist he would work with the Health Department to improve the city’s lead testing methods. And Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams tweeted a link to the CBS story with the message, "We must act."

Photo courtesy of Mariangela Castro/Pixabay