Hello my name is Diana King and I will tell you a story of my family. There are five of us, three young men ages 27 years to 14, my husband who is approaching his mid 50’s and myself. We have lived on the near west side of Cleveland in Ohio City for 20 years.. Our apartment is considered to be a quadplex. But that’s not what it was when it was built way back in the mid 1880’s.

We had our second child in 2000, and at first we didn’t notice anything unusual until after the first year when he wasn’t meeting some of the goal posts that one would expect in a child’s cycle of development. Most notably was the fact that he would not talk by age two. He also would sway while sitting on the floor. Repetitive motion is what they called it.

We had him tested for autism and as it turned out he was on the spectrum. We also found that the reason for it was most likely due to lead contamination. He was tested and found to have a very high amount of the dangerous metal in his blood. As a result the health inspector came to our house and tested the property. We learned that the soil was contaminated as well as other area of the building. When we first moved into our house the land was just dirt and grass next door. Now there is concrete that covers up the lead. But, by this time I had already given birth to our youngest son. Both of them tested positive for lead contamination though our youngest was found not to be autistic.
​
It is troubling that no one has come to our home since to follow up on the lead levels. Are they the same or reduced? We discovered a short time later that near our home was located near an abandoned lead foundry. In fact, I was told that no matter where you were living in Cleveland there was some degree of lead contamination. But I didn’t know this until after my kids were contaminated! If my landlord knew- he didn’t say anything. I hope that the City of Cleveland will approve this lead ordinance and actually enforce it. Even if it means that there might be going to be a lot of push back because there are a lot of old homes. I don’t think it’s fair for other low income families to be exposed to higher lead levels.