Local Law 1 of 1982, part of the Housing Maintenance Code, requires that when there is peeling paint in a building erected before 1960 in an apartment where a child under the age of seven lives, then a lead paint hazard is assumed to exist. If the problem isn't corrected, HPD sends in its Emergency Repair Unit to do the lead abatement work, and sends a bill to the owner. In such cases, the violation and perhaps the bill could be given to the building, the shareholder, or both. But there are danger spots around window frames and door jams, where friction creates dust from the lead-based paint. The enamel paints used on windows and doors contain the heaviest concentration of lead.
Children can inhale the dust or get in on their hands.
And unlike asbestos, the effects of the presence of lead show up when children get sick. There are other good reasons to act. Every purchaser of any interest in real property, on which a residential building was built prior to 1978, is notified that such property may provide exposure to lead from lead-based paint that may place young children at risk of developing lead poisoning. Lead poisoning in young children may produce permanent neurological damage, including learning disabilities, reduced intelligence, behavioral problems, and impaired memory. Lead poisoning also poses a particular risk to pregnant women.