BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw is raising red flags over lead levels in Erie County Parks and called on the county executive to immediately shut down all playgrounds in Erie County Parks until the playgrounds are safe.
Mychajliw sent a letter to County Executive Mark Poloncarz calling on him to immediately shut down all playground equipment across Erie County Parks following results from his own testing plus an independent lab which showed high levels of lead in peeling paint on 12 swings and slides.
"One half of one percent of the weight total of lead paint chip that contains lead can be considered dangerous," Mychajliw said. "On one of the pieces of playground equipment, it was 36 times that number within a county park."
The Comptroller's report characterizes poor conditions of playground equipment and asks that the equipment that is the subject of the positive lead tests be removed from parks within 24 hours and demands all playground equipment undergo complete testing.
"Going to a park and sliding down an old slide from the 1930's and 40's is not going to cause lead poisoning," Poloncarz said. "Living in a house that has lead paint on the walls, when you lift the window sashes and the lead dust gets into the air and it's constantly breathed in by a child, causes lead poisoning."
County Executive Mark Poloncarz says this will simply not happen. He added that only REPEATED exposure to lead causes problems, and he also says a vast majority of playground equipment was installed post-1978 when lead-based paint was ended. @NewsRadio930 https://t.co/Z3JvUEnXMC
— Brendan Keany (@BrendanKeany)
July 24, 2019 The county executive said some of the equipment will be removed as part of the park's master plan.
