Jerry Carino

@njhoopshaven

FREEHOLD - The bad news came in January, two days after 18-month-old Liam Pantoja underwent routine blood work. A nurse called with a diagnosis that is being delivered all too frequently in New Jersey.

“Your child has lead poisoning.”

Eventually the cause was determined: Liam ate lead-based paint chips that had peeled off a windowsill in his grandparents’ Freehold apartment, where he lived with his parents.

“We were shocked and very, very upset,” said his mom, Omara Avila. “We had no idea we were living in a home with a lead problem.”

That same week, Gov. Christie pocket-vetoed a bill dedicating $10 million to a fund that would help landlords remove lead from old housing, like the place where Liam lived. It had passed both houses of the state legislature with bipartisan support.

Do you think Christie should be doing more to stop lead poisoning in NJ? Why/Why not? 'Like' us on Facebook and leave us a comment.

Last month, taking a brief break from campaigning for Donald Trump, Christie had the audacity to call lead poisoning “an over-dramatized issue.” Then he took a vacation to watch Mets spring training in Florida.

While he basked in the sun as outfielders shagged fly balls, Liam’s parents desperately tried to lower their little boy’s lead levels. He was diagnosed at 15 micrograms per deciliter, which is well into the danger zone for toddlers.

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According to the Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, “Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect IQ, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. And effects of lead exposure cannot be corrected.”

Is that over-dramatized?

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“Liam became very moody, a lot of mood swings,” Avila said. “He never whined much, but now he does. He always had consistent sleeping patters and now it’s all off. He slept through the night since he was born. Then he was waking up in the middle of the night crying, hysterically crying.”

Liam’s appetite changed, too.

“He always ate well -- three meals a day, finished all his food,” his mom said. “Then he basically stopped eating. He would eat very little or less than half of his plate.”

By the time he was diagnosed, Liam and his parents already had moved to a single-family home a few blocks away. That, combined with fastidious care, lowered his lead level to safer five.

“We have to be super clean with him,” Avila said. “If he falls we have to immediately wash his hands. We have to dust constantly. He takes a lot of calcium, a lot of iron.”

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Liam’s behavior is starting to improve, but it might take years to discern whether he suffered permanent cognitive damage.

“I never would have imagined that it could happen to my child,” Avila said.

This was not a freak occurrence. An Asbury Park Press investigation showed that from 2000 to 2014, more than 222,000 New Jersey children under age 6 tested positive for high levels of lead. The Press’ reporting also revealed that state lawmakers took $50 million from a fund meant to protect children from lead poisoning in order to help prop up the state budget.

Those revelations sparked the lead remediation bill Christie ignored.

“It’s scary how some people don’t care,” Avila said while bouncing Liam on her knee. “Because it’s not their kid, they don’t care that this is happening.”

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Instead of high-fiving the Mets in Florida, or fetching Donald Trump’s suits from the dry cleaner, Christie should come to Freehold and see the panic in Omara Avila’s face. He should look at this beautiful toddler, who might face an uphill climb in life because he was poisoned by tiny flecks of old paint.

Who knows how many more Liams will ingest lead in homes targeted by the bill our governor deep-sixed, then mocked as “over-dramatized.”

One thing is certain: Thousands of impaired children is a poor legacy.

Carino’s Corner appears Mondays in the Asbury Park Press. Contact Jerry Carino at jcarino@gannettnj.com.