By Amudalat Ajasa and Carolyn Van Houten The Washington Post JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — The home Jade Shirey bought over a decade ago was a bargain and exactly what she needed for her growing family. But she knew it needed some touch-ups, and after a few years, she turned her attention to the chipping, dark-red-painted wood under the carpet. She started sanding the painted floors, before staining the wood. She had been remodeling the stairs for two months when she took her son, Benny, to his 1-year-old checkup. A finger prick showed he tested positive for lead levels four times higher than the national standard at the time. The lead paint hidden beneath the floorboards had turned into clouds of dust, poisoning him. Nearly a half century after the federal government banned lead-based paints in homes across the country, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to finalize tighter lead dust standards within days in an effort to eliminate toxic paint in homes built before 1978, according to agency officials. But even in some of the communities whose children face the highest risk for lead exposure, officials worry whether they can accomplish that goal. Benny Shirey, 4, walks up the stairs that gave him lead poisoning at home in Jamestown, N.Y. Some of his emotional stimulants that help keep him calm include his stuffed orca. Clothing can also overwhelm Benny, and he often refuses to wear any. (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post) The EPA estimates that more than a third of all housing units in the country — 31 million — still contain lead-based paint that was applied before the ban, and 3.8 million of them have one or more children under the age of 6 living there. The proposed rule EPA issued in July 2023 would declare any amount of lead dust detected on homes’ floors and windowsills hazardous. It also sets an aggressive new standard for what is considered clean after removing lead paint, slashing allowable levels to the lowest readings that can be reliably detected by testing labs. It does not mandate new inspections, but when indications of lead exposure emerge — during a child’s checkup, or after a lead paint inspection associated with the sale of a home, for example — state and local rules for lead removal will have to meet the proposed cleaning standards. Public housing authorities already require inspection and removal of lead paint hazards in homes undergoing remodeling, and HUD-funded homes may also require lead removal. Jade Shirey shows a photo of the stairs in her home when she found lead paint. (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post) The EPA estimates its proposed rule would prevent between 250,000 and 500,000 children under the age of 6 from being exposed to lead each year. Children are most vulnerable to lead poisoning, which can cause developmental delays, difficulty learning, behavioral problems and hyperactivity. Even low-level exposure can cause lifelong effects on children, including cognitive and nervous system damage, and hearing and speech challenges. Most of the lead a person is exposed to over time accumulates in the body, where it’s released very slowly. It can linger in the body, hiding in places meant to store calcium, like our bones. “Simply put,” Michal Freedhoff, the EPA’s assistant administrator for the office of chemical safety and pollution prevention, said when the rule was proposed in July 2023, “exposure to lead can reduce the promise and potential of a young life in some cases, and in other cases, it can profoundly damage them forever.” Benny holds his stuffed orca, named Free Willy, as Teddy, 2, jumps on the bed, something he learned to do from Benny. Teddy was also briefly poisoned by lead in the paint during a remediation attempt in their home. (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post) But the regulation’s opponents say eliminating all lead paint would raise the cost of housing, and even its supporters worry about how it will play out in practice. Many local and state agencies lack the staff and funding to identify where lead poisoning persists, and many families only discover they have unwittingly exposed their children to lead after a doctor’s visit. David Rosner, a professor of sociomedical sciences and history at Columbia University, in New York, said that previous rules limiting lead levels in blood — but not zeroing it out — were only “small victories.” “This is the first time the EPA has acknowledged that no level of lead is safe and that there’s no minimum level of exposure that’s acceptable,” he said, calling it “an extraordinary victory.” But Rosner added that getting local officials to inspect homes after learning about high lead levels and ensuring landlords remove lead paint “is no small operation.” Nicole Upano, assistant vice president of housing policy and regulatory affairs for the National Apartment Association, said that while the landlords’ group supports the goal of reducing childhood lead poisoning, the cost of “overregulation” could make housing even more scarce. The rule would discourage landlords for participating in federally assisted housing programs, she added, given its requirement to reduce lead dust to practically zero. “Having these requirements would disproportionately impact the naturally affordable housing available to families with children,” Upano said. “This new rule would essentially say that any particles of dust would be a hazard, and that’s really challenging.” Experts say it only takes a small amount of lead dust — the size of one sugar packet — to contaminate an entire football field. Opening a window or door lined with lead paint can create lead dust and chips as pieces of wood grind together. Small children face a particular risk from the floor and around windowsills, since they tend to explore the world by putting their hands and objects in their mouths. Jade holds 3-month-old Zarah during a football game at their school in Jamestown. Many of the homes in this area were built before the lead paint rules. (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post) Jamestown, where Shirey bought her home in 2012, is a small city surrounded by rural communities in the western corner of the state, in Chautauqua County. There, 90 percent of the homes were built before 1978 — and so are likely to have lead underneath layers of newer coats of paint. Anna Powell, Chautauqua County’s lead program director, believes that stricter guidelines will be “a big lift” and could be “tough to attain” but not impossible to achieve. “We are oddly excited about it because we understand that the benefits of it long term are going to really make a difference in the public health outcomes for children in this county and throughout New York State,” Powell said. The county recently received nearly $6 million from an HUD program aimed at preventing childhood lead poisoning, to pay for contractors to remove lead in private homes. Lisa Schmidtfrerick-Miller, a Chautauqua County health department contractor who promotes community awareness about lead poisoning prevention, said that stronger national standards will help protect children. But the fact that that rule does not require government officials to proactively test for lead dust, she said, could make it harder to eradicate. The CDC estimates that up to 500,000 children in the United States have blood lead levels at or above 3.5 micrograms per deciliter — a number that the CDC marks as a trigger for medical and public health intervention — largely from exposure to peeling paint and contaminated water, soil, food and toys. This exposure has dropped dramatically since 1976, thanks to federal bans on lead in gasoline, paint and in pipes supplying water to U.S. homes. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that between 1976 and 1980, 99.8 percent of surveyed children between 1 and 5 years old had blood lead levels of 5 micrograms per deciliter or more. By 2016, the number dropped to a little more than 1 percent. “It often feels like no one thinks lead poisoning is really a problem until their own child is poisoned, despite our ongoing efforts to educate our community about the risks and prevalence,” Schmidtfrerick-Miller said. Jade Shirey hugs Benny at home in Jamestown on Sept. 17. (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post) Chautauqua County is home to nearly 125,000 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, about 6,700 of which are children under the age of 5. Of New York’s 62 counties minus New York City, according to the state’s health department, Chautauqua County has the second-highest rate of children testing at nearly triple the federal threshold. “It feels like it’s been a systemic failure,” Schmidtfrerick-Miller said. “We’ve just failed these children and these families.” But Erin Clary, a spokeswoman for the state health department, said in an email that the level of exposure can be inflated in areas with low rates of lead testing, and it makes more sense to look at a community’s total number of poisoned children. Officials from Jamestown said that more testing would probably find higher rates of childhood lead poisoning. In many places, children are typically only checked for blood lead levels at their annual one- and two-year checkups. Chautauqua County officials, including Powell, support testing children each year through their 6-year-old checkup. “We need to do better,” she said. But for children like Benny, the damage can’t be undone. When Shirey first learned in 2020 that her son had lead poisoning, Benny’s lead levels stood at 22 micrograms per deciliter. After he was initially poisoned, Shirey contacted her local health department to inspect her home for lead. They identified all the areas with lead paint, but since none of them were peeling, she assumed Benny wouldn’t continue to be exposed if she stopped working on the stairs. Jade picks up paint chips that reveal an area of lead paint still on her house after mitigation. (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post) Over the course of a year, he went from an excitable baby who could sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to a nonverbal 2-year-old who struggled to follow simple instructions. The dreams Shirey had for her son have dwindled, and she wonders what her son would be like had he not been poisoned. “This should have all been done a very long time ago,” Shirey said, adding that she believes the new ban will reduce lead exposure for other children, even if it won’t help her own. While Shirey tested her son multiple times, she said the doctors did not give her specific guidance on how to reduce his exposure to the harmful toxin. His lead levels fell to 9 micrograms per deciliter at age 2, medical records show, and to 6.2 at 2½. She and her best friend researched which foods absorb lead and which would purge it, she recalled. When Benny was almost 3, Shirey qualified for HUD assistance to remove lead from parts of her home. The county painted over the chipping paint with lead barrier paint, added layers of wood over the door frames and replaced a couple window frames. But the lead exposure did not stop. As winter approached in 2022 and Shirey turned on the heat, she said that plumes of dust blew from the vents into the air. By December, days after Benny’s third birthday, his levels shot back up to 21, though it is unclear exactly why. Shirey said she has contacted the local health department and was promised a professional cleaning, but it has not happened. Her son’s lead levels now stand at 4.4 micrograms per deciliter, above the CDC’s recommended threshold. Benny falls asleep as S’miya Kingsbury, 14, strokes his hair, a sensory stimulation that helps calm him. (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post) Shirey still has the notes app she used to track words Benny knew how to say. She hasn’t updated it in almost two years. Shirey gets emotional when she watches old videos of her son talking and singing. Benny’s grandpa, Vernon Shirey, teased that it used to drive him mad the amount of times Benny would say “papa.” Now he prays to hear it. Benny meets with a speech therapist twice a week and is in a special-education class. But while other children are able to count to 10 and sing their ABCs by the end of prekindergarten, Benny is only able to match similar pictures. Benny is prone to explosive meltdowns and other behavioral issues, and the severity of his delays have become clearer as his 2-year-old brother, Teddy, starts to dress himself and form complete sentences. His blue tablet, on which he frequently plays aquatic videos, and stuffed orca toy are some of the few things that keep him calm. His short attention span has made learning basic skills, like potty training, a challenge. Benny can’t play in the sandbox or color with his brother without strict supervision because Shirey worries he’ll eat the sand or crayons — a condition known as pica. “My kid is 4½ years old, and I don’t even know what his voice sounds like,” she said. Remnants of lead paint still remain throughout Shirey’s home, under layers of new paint and wood. While holding Teddy in her arms, she touched the pillar that overlooks her backyard. Chunks of white, chipping paint crumbled into her hands. More lead paint. Benny carries the orca and iPad that he uses to comfort himself. (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post) As Shirey walks up the stairs that poisoned her son, with blue marker scribbles from Benny on the sage walls beside it, she is sometimes consumed with guilt from her son’s irreversible brain damage. “As a parent, sometimes it’s very hard for me because I feel like it’s my fault,” Shirey said. She frequently calls her parents crying, blaming herself. Just 2 1/2 months before Benny’s 5th birthday, as Shirey tucked him under his Thomas the Train blanket, she said, “I love you.” Through broken syllables, he repeated, “I. Love. You.” Shirey stood in disbelief. It was the first time he had ever said it. She tried to get him to say it again. He did not.