WE ACT for Environmental Justice Statement on NYC’s Roadmap to Eliminating Childhood Lead Exposure

Jan 28, 2019

Chris Dobens

  • Press Release

    • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    January 28, 2019
    Contact: Chris Dobens, 212-961-1000 ext. 320, chris@weact.org

     

    NEW YORK – New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio and Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia today released the City’s Roadmap to Eliminating Childhood Lead Exposure. WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s Deputy Director and Director of Policy Initiatives Cecil Corbin-Mark issued the following statement:

    “Children of color have borne the heaviest burden of lead poisoning, a completely preventable environmental health challenge, in this City and their exposure to lead is coming primarily from two sources – peeling lead paint in their homes and lead-tainted products on store shelves in their communities,” explained Cecil Corbin-Mark, WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s Deputy Director and Director of Policy Initiatives. “Lead poisoning is poisoning, and poisoning a human being is a crime.

    “Three roads will lead us to a lead-free New York City. The first road is strong enforcement of Local Law 1 of 2004, which WE ACT for Environmental Justice and other advocates worked on. The second road is to treat criminals like criminals under the law, which means that the handful of bad landlords who don’t follow Local Law 1 as well as the manufacturers that peddle lead-tainted products should be prosecuted and jailed. And the third road is the policies outlined in the report released by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Commissioner Kathryn Garcia today,” added Corbin-Mark. “WE ACT thanks the Mayor and the Commissioner for taking a leadership role on lead poisoning, and we look forward to working with them on a lead-free New York City.”

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    WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan membership-based organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.