The Romans called it plumbum.
They built their empire on it. Water pipes. Cooking vessels. Wine vessels. Aqueducts that carried water across half a continent. The soft grey metal bent easily, lasted forever, and sat quietly in the infrastructure of daily life for centuries.
They didn’t know it was killing them.
We do.
This week a law firm in New York announced that two sisters from the Bronx had been awarded $1.75 million after suffering lead poisoning in their apartment. The older girl was three years old at the time of exposure. The younger was two. Their blood lead levels reached 21 and 6 micrograms per deciliter respectively. The CDC’s reference level is 3.5. Both children sustained developmental delays. Both will require special educational support for the foreseeable future.
Their landlord allegedly failed to comply with New York City’s Local Law 1 of 2004. A city agency documented the violation. The case went to mediation. A number was agreed on. A press release was issued.
And somewhere else in this city, in this country, another child is living in an apartment with paint on the walls that was put there before 1978.
Lead paint was banned in residential housing in the United States in 1978.
That was 48 years ago. Before the internet. Before the first iPhone. Before most people reading this were born.
Approximately 500,000 children in the United States still have blood lead levels at or above the CDC reference value. As of 2019, 4.3 million children were still living in homes with lead paint hazards. Congress has not reformed the nation’s main lead poisoning prevention laws in more than 30 years. The nation has been without a dedicated plan and budget for lead remediation for more than two decades.
We banned the product. We didn’t fix the walls.
The walls are still there. The children are smaller than the walls.
The Bronx settlement will get a news cycle. Maybe two days. People will share it. Someone will comment that this is outrageous. Someone else will say something needs to be done.
Then it will move on.
It always moves on.
Flint, Michigan got national attention in 2015. Lead in the water. Thousands of children exposed. Congressional hearings. Celebrities. Donations. The cameras arrived and the cameras left and years later the infrastructure was still failing the same people.
The cinnamon applesauce recall started in 2023. Lead chromate was intentionally added to cinnamon powder imported from Ecuador to enhance color and increase weight. Children ate it. Parents trusted the label. The outrage cycle ran its course. FDA recalls of lead-contaminated cinnamon products extended through 2024, 2025, and into 2026 as more contaminated sources kept surfacing.
The pattern is always the same. Discovery. Outrage. Cycle. Repeat.
Here is what the outrage cycle never quite gets to.
Lead didn’t stay in the walls. It moved.
Imported toys continue to test positive for lead. Between June 2022 and April 2024 alone there were 30 recalls of children’s products for lead hazards, representing nearly 915,000 units sold. 86% of those products were manufactured in China. Products were on the market for an average of 25 months before being recalled. Twenty-five months. That’s two years of a child’s early development before anyone pulled the product.
Lead has been found in spices imported from Vietnam, India, and Syria. In jewelry sold to children. In certain cosmetics and traditional remedies purchased from informal markets. In soil along highways where leaded gasoline left a legacy that outlasted every car that burned it.
The ban worked on paper. In practice lead simply found other routes in.
The children it finds are not random.
The median blood lead level in Black non-Hispanic children is measurably higher than in all other groups. Children in families below the poverty level have higher blood lead levels than those above it. The Bronx has some of the oldest housing stock in the country. The families in that housing are not there by choice. They are there because that is what the rent allows.
Lead poisoning is not bad luck. It is the predictable consequence of which buildings get maintained and which ones don’t. Of which children get tested and which ones don’t. Of which neighborhoods get enforcement and which ones get a violation notice that sits unanswered until a law firm gets involved.
Two little girls in the Bronx didn’t have a landlord who fixed the walls.
They had a landlord who didn’t.
The difference between those two things is everything.
The Romans built their aqueducts from plumbum because they didn’t know what it did to them.
We know. We have known for nearly fifty years. We banned the paint and told ourselves the problem was solved and moved on to the next thing.
The next thing always came.
The walls didn’t change.
They are still waiting for someone to care long enough to fix them.
Not for a news cycle.
For good.
Colt Avery is a contributing writer at Aktiego. The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not represent the editorial position of Aktiego.com.
Sources
- Two Bronx Sisters Awarded $1.75 Million | The Frankel Law Firm
- About Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention | CDC
- Childhood Lead Poisoning 1970-2022 | PMC
- Biomonitoring: Lead | US EPA
- Recalls of Children’s Products Due to Lead Hazards | CDC
- Recently Recalled Children’s Products Due to Lead Hazards | PMC
- Lead in Cinnamon and Applesauce: FDA Recall List | NonToxicLab
- About Lead in Consumer Products | CDC
Editorial Disclosure
This article was prompted by a legal settlement announcement involving childhood lead poisoning in the Bronx and expanded into a broader argument about the persistence of lead exposure in America despite decades of regulation. No financial relationships exist with any legal firm, company, or organization mentioned. Data is drawn from the CDC, US EPA, National Institutes of Health, and FDA. Commentary reflects the author’s own assessment. The information provided on this website is for informational and educational purposes only. Our content is derived strictly from verified online sources to ensure accuracy and objectivity. This analysis does not constitute financial, investment, or professional advice. Readers are encouraged to consult with qualified professionals before making decisions based on this information. For more information, please see our full DISCLAIMER.
