Michael Symons

@MichaelSymons_

This article was first published Feb. 1, 2016, and updated Feb. 3, 2016.

TRENTON – Young children in 11 cities and two counties in New Jersey have higher levels of lead in their blood than children in Flint, Michigan, where a water contamination crisis has grabbed national attention.

Those localities in New Jersey were Irvington, Trenton, Newark, Paterson, Plainfield, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Atlantic City, New Brunswick and Passaic, plus Cumberland and Salem counties.

There were more than 3,000 new cases in New Jersey of children under 6 with elevated lead levels in 2015, bringing the total to around 225,000 since 2000, said Elyse Pivnick, director of environmental health for Isles Inc. New Jersey’s exposure is linked to lead paint in homes, not water supplies.

“Because of Flint, Michigan, most of the world now knows lead in water can poison children,” Pivnick said. “The deplorable water scandal is an important story, but it is just as tragic and alarming that thousands of children in New Jersey continue to be exposed to lead year after year.”

Christie kills child lead protection bill

Lawmakers and advocacy groups have a four-part plan, launched Monday, to get state officials to do more about lead poisoning of children, particularly in New Jersey’s cities.

Get the attention of a public startled by Flint. There has been widespread coverage of the lead poisoning caused by the drinking water supply in Flint, Michigan. Trenton-based Isles Inc. released new data Monday showing 11 New Jersey cities and two counties with higher percentages of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood in 2014, the most recent numbers available, than in Flint in 2015. Flint in 2014 changed its water supplier to one using more corrosive water, causing lead levels in children to start spiking higher.

Try again to add the $10 million to the budget. Legislation has been reintroduced that would add $10 million in the current budget for the Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund, which is financed through a 50-cent per gallon fee on paint sales. The fund has spent $16.5 million since it was created in 2004, but more than $53 million has been diverted to the general budget.

Additionally, advocacy groups are pushing for Gov. Chris Christie to include the money in the 2017 budget he’ll propose in two weeks, or for lawmakers to add it during the deliberations and negotiations that will follow through the end of June. Christie, who has put no money into the fund in the last three years, vetoed a $10 million appropriation last month.

$50M taken from NJ child protection lead fund

Move inspections to local level. State Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, said the state hasn’t enforced a 2008 law requiring one- and two-family homes to be inspected for lead paint, so she’ll push for a law shifting for that to be done by local government instead. It would be paid for through a fee assessed on landlords.

“We know the governor wants smaller government. And of course as you get smaller government, you get fewer services and in this case fewer protections for our people and our children,” said state Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer.

A public advocacy campaign. The #LeadFreeKidsNJ campaign is intending to send painted handprints of 3,100 children, equal to the number who tested positive for lead poisoning last year, to Christie as a way of pressuring him to include the funding.

“Gov. Christie has the opportunity to right this wrong, to include funding for lead poisoning prevention and abatement, to ensure that possibly we would have no kids poisoned by lead,” said Ann Vardeman, associate director of organizing and advocacy for New Jersey Citizen Action.

Michael Symons: (609) 984-4336; msymons@gannettnj.com