- Joined
- Apr 26, 2007
- Messages
- 8,087
I've been absent from the boards recently - it turns out my house is basically made of lead, and I could use some advice. Medical, legal, or just plain practical.
When I was 8 months pregnant last fall, I found a nice apartment in an old building: moved in, gave birth, raised my baby. In spring a pipe burst and required some renovation, but I thought, hey, old building, it happens. When the kiddo was 9 months old, his pediatrician ran a routine blood test, and the results came back at 9. According to the scale, under 5 is safe; under ten a cause for concern; 15 or more and they call in the Department of Health; and as you go higher up the scale you get more and more concerned until at 30-45 you have to perform somewhat dangerous chelation therapy, and around 70 it's life-threatening.
Anyway. A 9. My doctor thought it was an anomaly, but definitely something to keep an eye on, and told me to come back in a month to retest. And I watched him like a hawk for that month. I mean, I do generally, but I mean now all of his non-soft toys got taken away, stuff with zippers, the works.
One month later, his blood tested at a 17, and we contacted the Department of Health. They sent an inspector the next day, he spent a good long while asking about my hobbies and whether anybody in the family shot guns or went fly-fishing or painted or otherwise came into contact with lead. And then he tested the apartment, and it was off-the-charts high for lead paint. He actually apologized for having spent so much time quizzing me about all that - said he never would have expected to see readings like those in a good building in a nice part of town.
From what I gathered when the pipe burst, the people who lived in the apartment before us where there for a long time, and it sounds like somebody screwed up and didn't renovate it like they should when it came up empty - though that's just something a handyman said, I don't know it for a fact. I do know they raised a hell of a lot of dust when the pipe burst, and never even did a swab, which is required in NY: makes me think they're not just occasionally lackadaisical, but actually consistently negligent. And this is a building FULL of kids.
We moved into a hotel immediately, and we've been going back-and-forth with the landlord ever since. First he said he had an empty apartment we could use while he renovated ours, then he had it tested and even though it had been completely remodeled recently, it ALSO tested high for lead - not as extensively as ours, though, so they're renovating it first so we can move our stuff into it while they redo the entirety of our place. And then when they're done there (they think it'll be by Thanksgiving) we have to move all our stuff back (after it is retested by the Dept. of Health, of course).
Guys, I am at my wit's end. I'm worried about my baby. I'm worried about the out-of-pocket expenses we're incurring - spending 18 days in a hotel isn't cheap, and neither are moving expenses, and while the landlord is paying, he's also whining about how this is costing him "a fortune," and I can tell it's going to be like pulling teeth. I'm working, and trying to coordinate all of this while getting the stuff I need to get done is an exercise in sleep deprivation. And, oh, did I mention this weekend is my 5 year anniversary? Going to spend it trying to cram 1300 square feet worth of stuff in 760 square feet of space, IF the place is ready by the weekend - otherwise we get to move to another hotel and then reorganize the situation with the movers, since the hotel we're in now doesn't have vacancies after the 28th.
GOOD TIMES.
Anyway. It is good to vent, but if any of y'all have been through anything like this, I would really appreciate some advice. Or just plain old PS dust. So long as it is unleaded.
When I was 8 months pregnant last fall, I found a nice apartment in an old building: moved in, gave birth, raised my baby. In spring a pipe burst and required some renovation, but I thought, hey, old building, it happens. When the kiddo was 9 months old, his pediatrician ran a routine blood test, and the results came back at 9. According to the scale, under 5 is safe; under ten a cause for concern; 15 or more and they call in the Department of Health; and as you go higher up the scale you get more and more concerned until at 30-45 you have to perform somewhat dangerous chelation therapy, and around 70 it's life-threatening.
Anyway. A 9. My doctor thought it was an anomaly, but definitely something to keep an eye on, and told me to come back in a month to retest. And I watched him like a hawk for that month. I mean, I do generally, but I mean now all of his non-soft toys got taken away, stuff with zippers, the works.
One month later, his blood tested at a 17, and we contacted the Department of Health. They sent an inspector the next day, he spent a good long while asking about my hobbies and whether anybody in the family shot guns or went fly-fishing or painted or otherwise came into contact with lead. And then he tested the apartment, and it was off-the-charts high for lead paint. He actually apologized for having spent so much time quizzing me about all that - said he never would have expected to see readings like those in a good building in a nice part of town.
From what I gathered when the pipe burst, the people who lived in the apartment before us where there for a long time, and it sounds like somebody screwed up and didn't renovate it like they should when it came up empty - though that's just something a handyman said, I don't know it for a fact. I do know they raised a hell of a lot of dust when the pipe burst, and never even did a swab, which is required in NY: makes me think they're not just occasionally lackadaisical, but actually consistently negligent. And this is a building FULL of kids.
We moved into a hotel immediately, and we've been going back-and-forth with the landlord ever since. First he said he had an empty apartment we could use while he renovated ours, then he had it tested and even though it had been completely remodeled recently, it ALSO tested high for lead - not as extensively as ours, though, so they're renovating it first so we can move our stuff into it while they redo the entirety of our place. And then when they're done there (they think it'll be by Thanksgiving) we have to move all our stuff back (after it is retested by the Dept. of Health, of course).
Guys, I am at my wit's end. I'm worried about my baby. I'm worried about the out-of-pocket expenses we're incurring - spending 18 days in a hotel isn't cheap, and neither are moving expenses, and while the landlord is paying, he's also whining about how this is costing him "a fortune," and I can tell it's going to be like pulling teeth. I'm working, and trying to coordinate all of this while getting the stuff I need to get done is an exercise in sleep deprivation. And, oh, did I mention this weekend is my 5 year anniversary? Going to spend it trying to cram 1300 square feet worth of stuff in 760 square feet of space, IF the place is ready by the weekend - otherwise we get to move to another hotel and then reorganize the situation with the movers, since the hotel we're in now doesn't have vacancies after the 28th.
GOOD TIMES.
Anyway. It is good to vent, but if any of y'all have been through anything like this, I would really appreciate some advice. Or just plain old PS dust. So long as it is unleaded.