In October, a family living in Lilac Place apartment complex in Provo were shocked when their doctor told them at their one-year-old’s annual check up that he had shown higher levels of lead in his blood.
They wondered what could’ve caused these results, and they discovered that the danger came from within the walls of their very own home after the EPA did a screen test of the paint in their apartment.
James Reindhardt has since moved apartments and he spoke on the phone about his experience:
“It was still kind of scary, just because we didn’t know about lead in the apartment until we had seen it come up in our kid’s blood, you know?”
The tenants who lived in the apartment before James were also unaware of any danger.
Yvonne Moulton, who rented before Reinhardt was shocked. “The guy I had sold the contract to whose kid had gotten like, ‘what was it? Lead poisoning?’ And I was like WHAT? Like I had no idea. I wouldn’t have sold you the contract had I known that there was like lead in the apartments,” said Moulton.
Other tenants have not heard about the problem.
“Most buildings around here seem pretty old, so like most of them seem like they’d be at risk to have the same problem,” said Nathan Dawson, a current tenant.
According to the U.S. Department of housing, landlords are required to disclose any information concerning lead-based paints or lead-based paints hazards.
They are also required to include it in their contracts.
James and others who have had this experience ask that landlords and property owners recognize this issue and plead that a change will be made.
“I don’t know if anything could have happened better or how I would have liked it to go differently is if landlords would take the responsibility to test for these things.”
