There's a potential threat to children in more than 85,000 homes in Buffalo. That threat is lead-based paint chips and dust.
The state health department's most recent data shows that some 350 children a year in Erie County test positive for lead poisoning, and over three-quarters of them in Buffalo.
The percent of children testing positive here is more than triple the state average, according to the state health data. Erie County's rate is the worst of the 11 counties that test 10,000 or more children a year.
"Buffalo is ground zero in the entire country for lead poisoning. That comes from fact that the Center for Disease Control clearly says that old housing stock is the primary source of childhood lead poisoning," said David Hahn-Baker, a local environmental activist in Buffalo.
Indeed, the majority of children are poisoned by lead-based paint that is chipping or peeling inside and outside of homes built before 1978, when the additive was banned. The lead-based paint also can be in the form of dust that can poison children.
Consequently, Census data shows that Buffalo has the oldest pre-1939 housing stock in the nation among major cities.
The Erie County Health Department inspects the exteriors of about 2,000 homes a year for lead hazards. Less than half are interior inspections because they need permission to get inside a home. At the current pace, it will take at least 30 years to complete inspections of all of the housing units in Buffalo's most at-risk neighborhoods.
Dr. Stanley Schaffer, director of the Western New York Lead Poisoning Resource Center in Rochester, said the consequences can be dire: Reduced IQ, learning disabilities and irritable- even violent - behavior.
"The effect of lead poisoning on intelligence are irreversible. Once you lose your brain cells they don't grow back for the most part," Schaffer said.
