Lead Exposure Lawsuit Raises Concerns of Lingering Exposure

Two mothers filed suit in 2022 against The Chicago Housing Authority, accusing them of withholding knowledge of lead-based paint in their unit, which resulted in their children contracting lead poisoning. The case was recently settled, according to The Chicago Tribune.

The plaintiffs include Shanna Jordan on behalf of her now 10-year-old son Jah’mir Collins, who suffered emotional and motor issues, and Morgan Collins who filed on behalf of her now 6-year-old daughter Amiah Collins, who experienced significant behavioral issues. All four were living at 7715 N. Marshfield Ave., which is less than two miles from the Lake Shore Campus, when the children contracted lead poisoning.

Of the defendants — CHA, The Habitat Co. Eastlake Management Group and Environmental Design International — only CHA was found guilty after a seven-week trial, while Environmental Design settled. In a Jan. 17 statement, CHA said they’re taking the necessary steps to prevent similar situations in the future.

“We are taking the necessary steps to work with our private property managers and directly contacting residents in units, including the 7715 N. Marshfield Avenue scattered site building, where additional testing and remediation may be necessary,” CHA wrote.

Federal law requires lead-based paint to be reported in residential properties, according to section 1018 of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992. The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Matthew Sims from Rapoport Weisberg & Sims, P.C., said CHA exhibited a pattern of negligence regarding the presence of lead in 7715 N. Marshfield Ave since the 1990s.

Sims said Jordan and Collins moved into the unit in 2014, when Jordan was pregnant with her son. Collins welcomed her daughter, Amiah, in 2018. They’d previously been on a Section 8 waiting list for years.

“Every time [renters] sign a new lease, they’re given a lead based paint disclosure form in which the CHA says, ‘We have no knowledge of lead based paint. We have no records, and we have no reports,’” Sims said. “What we found out, in this case, during the course of discovery, was that that was absolutely false.”

The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a proposal Oct. 24 to strengthen requirements of removing lead-based paint hazards in pre-1978 homes, advancing the Biden Administration’s agenda to protect families from lead exposure. 

The EPA declined The Phoenix’s request for comment.

Dr. Amit Gupta, a medical toxicologist in the Stritch School of Medicine, said while more rare now due to stricter government regulations, he still encounters lead-exposure cases.

“If you see some delays in neurocognitive function and reaching their milestones, those are signs of lead exposure,” Gupta said.

The neighboring properties of 7715 N. Marshfield Ave., 7714 N. Marshfield Ave. and 7716 N. Marshfield Ave., were built in 1923 and 1997, according to property records from the county office. 

A number of properties near those owned by the university in Rogers Park were built before 1978, including 1032 W. Loyola Ave., which was built in 1911 and neighbors Arrupe House and  6214 N. Winthrop, which was built in 1931 and neighbors Fairfield Hall. Both buildings are apartment complexes but aren’t owned by the university. 

Sims said Jordan and Collins applied to live in a “scattered site” — a type of affordable housing in individual buildings which house a small number of families rather than large apartment complexes. 

There are nearly 2,900 of these scattered site properties located throughout Chicago, according to CHA.

CHA has been involved in lead-poisoning cases before, The Associated Press reported. Sims said, to his knowledge, CHA still uses the same process to record sources of lead in their properties. 

“The real tragedy here is that lead poisoning in buildings from paint is entirely preventable if you just follow the law,” Sims said.

Groups such as Loyola’s Civitas ChildLaw Center, The Policy Institute, Institute of Environmental Sustainability, Center for Urban Research and Learning and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have been working to combat the issue of lead paint in communities since 1999. 

Information Coordinator for CDPH, James Scalzitti, wrote in an email to The Phoenix information on recognizing lead-paint hazards and the risk of having lead-paint in a home.

“A hazard is when lead-based paint is not intact but deteriorated and thus capable of creating dust contaminated with lead,” Scalzitti wrote. “Hazards are less common than lead paint.”

The American Healthy Homes Survey defined the scope of a lead-based paint hazard in a 2021 report. A significant LBP hazard occurs when a home contains deteriorated LBP in amounts greater than 20 square feet and two square feet on walls or doors. They estimate 34.6 million homes contain LBP.

Gupta said several treatments exist to counteract exposure to lead, including a simple finger prick to obtain a blood sample.

“The first line treatment is getting removed from the source,” Gupta said. “Then you can chelate the person and give them medications as much as you want, but if they’re still being exposed and ingesting lead or breathing in lead, you’re just putting a bandaid on the other treatments.”

Prevalence of lead poisoning in Chicago children decreased from 70.2% in 1996 to 1.8% in 2021, according to the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention & Data Report released by CDPH. The total population of children under five in Chicago in 2021 was approximately 154,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Lead exposure disproportionately affects populations of color and lower socioeconomic classes, according to the National Library of Medicine.

“Unfortunately, it does tend to be more common in the lower socioeconomic status population, due to them living in homes that are older,” Gupta said. “A lot of city housing project homes were painted with lead paint prior to 1978.”

President of the Edgewater Glen Association, John Dale, said he thinks measures should be taken to combat lead exposure.
Dale said his primary concern was with lead piping. Before the federal ban on lead pipes in 1986, Chicago mayors tried to gain the electoral support of plumber’s unions by enforcing city codes which required lead servicing lines be installed by a licensed union plumber, according to the University of Chicago. Other concerns about replacing lead pipes in Chicago include expensive construction costs, AP reported.