A New Tool Helps Tenants Tackle Lead Paint Exposure
By Phyllis Eckhaus
Does your building have lead paint? Now there’s a map for that, a digital tool (coopersquare.org/leadmap) that allows New York City tenants to type in their address and instantly determine if they may be at risk for lead exposure.
Released in October by the East Village-based Cooper Square Committee (CSC) and Lead Dust Free NYC, a tenant-lead citywide coalition, the map makes initial research easy. Buildings built before 1960—when the city banned lead paint—are, by law, presumed to have lead paint.
No safe levels of lead exposure
The map shows a vast sea of alarming orange—indicating potentially lead paint-contaminated buildings. Lead paint is ubiquitous in New York City, where 76% of all buildings pre-date the 1960 ban. Buildings built after 1960 may still contain lead paint, especially if they were built before the 1978 federal ban on lead paint. Even apartments that have undergone gut renovations may still retain lead paint.
The risk is huge. Lead is toxic, and according to the World Health Organization, there’s no safe level of exposure.
In 2023 alone, more than 5,000 New York City children under the age of six were poisoned by lead paint, some facing irreversible harm—reduced IQs, learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, and behavior problems among other severe impacts.
Although lead exposure is especially dangerous to young children—and city law requires landlords to immediately remediate lead paint where young children are present—it is also dangerous to adults. Even low levels of lead exposure in adults increases the risk of cancer, and neurological, cardiovascular, and renal issues.
Children ingesting peeling paint and chips is just a small part of the problem. Lead dust, which can be invisible to the eye and toxic in tiny amounts, is the primary pathway for exposure. Normal abrasion of intact painted surfaces—such as window and door frames—can generate lead dust.
Lead dust generated via construction is also a widespread concern, especially among rent-regulated tenants dealing with landlords who aggressively renovate their buildings, often without regard to city safety requirements. Last year, CSC and others issued a scathing report, Left in the Dust, condemning the city’s failure to address the poisoning of tenants via construction dust.
A previous report, Collecting Dust, documented the city’s failure to collect the paltry fines levied against landlords for exposing their tenants to lead. The report noted that the city’s Department of Health and Mental Health, responsible for collecting fines, had—in the 15-year study period—collected over $5 million from street vendors guilty of infractions like letting their food cart touch a building, but just over $10,000 from landlords with lead-related violations. Less than half of 1% of lead-related fines levied by DOHMH were collected.
What if your building is at risk for lead?
“Almost every aspect of protecting yourself and your family from lead paint hazards starts with a basic education about where lead paint exists in our housing,” said Brandon Kielbasa, CSC’s director of organizing.
Ultimately, you will need to ask your landlord to show you the results of their lead tests. Local Law 31 of 2020 required your landlord, by August 2025, to test for lead in your apartment and in the common areas of your building, if your building was built before 1960. Testing was also required in newer buildings, where the landlord was aware of the presence of lead. The landlord is required to keep this information for ten years.
If the landlord has not yet done this test, they must still do so by hiring an EPA-certified lead paint inspector. They are required to use an XRF (x-ray fluorescence) analyzer, which uses X-rays to analyze paint layers.
Kielbasa urged that you consider reaching out to other tenants before you talk to your landlord—in collective action there is strength. You can also reach out to CSC or other local tenants’ rights organizations for help. Contact CSC at LDFNYC@coopersquare.org.
Organizing can be key, CSC organizer Jodie Leidecker emphasized, noting that “Only after intense work on the part of tenants have I ever seen landlords attempt to follow the rules for lead safety.”
Author’s addition:
I should add that the city’s lead paint testing law also applies to coops and condos. A March 2025 FAQ put out by New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, available at https://www.nyc.gov/assets/
