Doctors call on Buffalo to enforce rental inspection law

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A group of doctors and other medical professionals are calling on Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown to begin the implementation of a law requiring inspections of rental units for lead. The bill was passed four years ago.

The Proactive Rental Inspections law was aimed to reduce high rates of lead poisoning among Buffalo’s children, and mitigate other health and safety issues found in rental housing. A group of 80 medical professionals and doctors sent a letter to Mayor Brown and city leaders to begin enforcement of the law.

One of those medical professionals is retired physician Dr. Melinda Cameron.

"When this law was passed, we were very excited that this was a way to significantly decrease the lead levels of children in our city whose levels are far higher than the kids in Flint, Michigan, that gets all of the attention and money," said Cameron in an interview with WBEN.

She says the overwhelming majority of kids with extremely high levels that need treatment almost always come from rental housing.

"It was very exciting to have that legislation passed. Yet here we are four years later, and we are still seeing children poisoned through these homes, because the inspections and remediation have not been completed," Cameron added.

Cameron concedes a couple of factors are keeping this from happening sooner.

"They obviously need the financing, they need to figure that out. They need to have enough inspectors to do it," Cameron said.

She also puts some of the blame on the elements.

"Our timeline for doing these types of things is short in terms of being able to get into homes now during the warm weather to be able to do exteriors in inspections, giving them the opportunity to know where the issues are so that they can correct them when the weather is good," Cameron said.

Cameron says lead poisoning is very harmful for the developing nervous system for children to the point it becomes a permanent issue.

"Once it's affected, it can't be reversed. We cannot reverse it with medication, and we can bring their lead levels down, but the damage has already been done," he said.