The concern of lead poisoning is a major problem for Upstate communities with aging infrastructure, an issue that covers a lot of municipalities in New York state, including Onondaga County. This has a significant impact on the community, and especially children.

“We can trace the association—not the causality, because that's still something we're working out—but we can show the overlapping of areas of lead poisoning with poor educational performance, with teen pregnancy, with entry into the criminal justice system, and so on. So there's a whole set of ramifications,” says Robert Rubinstein, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology.

“In Onondaga County as a whole, we had 25.3 children per 1,000 with lead levels greater than 5 mg/dl. That compares to 12.1 for the state. For children with lead levels greater than 10 mg/dl in Onondaga County, we had 8.8 children per 1,000 compared to the state with 3.8,” Rubinstein says. “And within Onondaga County, lead poisoning is greater in the city than it is outside of the city.”

Watch the full segment via WCNY CONNECT NY'swebsite (beginning at 26:00).