SA President David Bruen sets sights on community lead remediation initiatives
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Syracuse University Student Association President David Bruen is looking to pass an assembly resolution to take an official stance on the lead paint crisis in the city of Syracuse, as well as involve SA with local advocacy efforts.
In Syracuse and Onondaga County, old housing stock has resulted in consistently high blood lead levels in children, especially Black children and those who live in lower income tracts. Of the 68,196 total residences in Syracuse, 94% were built before the year 1980, according to the city’s 2010 housing plan. It wasn’t until 1978 that lead paint was banned for residential use.
“We know that this is something that’s happening across the country in cities that have lots of residential construction in the 60s and 70s, when lead paint was predominant and when lead pipes were used,” Bruen said. “Ultimately, it’s a public health issue. It’s, of course, a generational issue because a lot of kids are facing impacts and that lasts for life.”
Today, of the 3,775 Syracuse children tested for blood lead levels in 2021, 10.5% were considered to have elevated levels of lead in their bloodstream. A small number of those children tested as having double the threshold to qualify for high blood lead levels. Of the Black children tested in Syracuse in 2021, 13.9% had elevated lead blood levels.
Bruen specifically referenced Census Tract 54, a majority Black neighborhood in Syracuse’s Southside, where from 2013-2020 an average of 26.5% of children tested for high blood lead levels, according to Harvard Public Health.
“If it’s so prevalent now with Black children and other impoverished children in this city, we’re going to see the impacts of that for a long time in educational outcomes and job outcomes,” Bruen said. “So, it’s a moral, economic, educational public health crisis in this city and across the country.”
Bruen emphasized the importance of understanding the full extent of the issue, saying that remediation efforts don’t mean a one-time intervention, but should address health complications that people end up having to cope with for their entire lives.
He said one area where federal, state, county and city governments can better take action and address the issue in a comprehensive manner is to focus on active remediation efforts to infrastructure – including lead pipes and paint in homes – rather than just relying on testing.
“You have to do everything around the issue comprehensively and intentionally to see the best results,” Bruen said.
He said that though the issue might not directly affect SU students who live on campus, it may impact those who live in off-campus housing, including residences that have been converted to serve as student housing.
After attending a local nonprofit’s community meeting for a participatory budgeting session in February with other SA leaders, Bruen said he was inspired to take a stance on the issue and work with community members and leaders to figure out next steps.
Bruen said SA has developed the resolution to take an official stance on the crisis, but has yet to pass it in the assembly. Upon the bill’s passage, SA will have the opportunity to reach out to local officials.
SA has taken stances on city and nationwide issues in the past, including its November 2022 resolution to commemorate those killed at University of Virginia during a shooting and its April 2022 resolution in favor of revoking Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree from the College of Law.
Bruen emphasized the importance of remembering the deep and direct impacts the crisis has on people, and added that because SU students receive so many opportunities and resources from the city, students have a responsibility to support the community.
“Frankly, sitting on this hill, away from this problem, observing the city — the city which not all of us are from but now we’re attached to,” Bruen said. “We have a responsibility to try and make it better while we’re here.”
