Crapping my pants about lead paint

teachermom

Hi,
I am worried about lead paint in my new apartment, and I wanted to get some perspective here.

When we moved into our new apartment we noticed before not too long that the paint was peeling. We have an old, pre-war building. It's very nice by and large.

Well, our daughter is 7 mos. old so we were worried. Then I had a lad test the paint chips and they contained lead. Lots of other chipping paint can be found through the apartment.

We told the owners and they told us to call the building manager. We told the building manager and he examined it, said he would fix it, and told us NOT to tell the city of New York. He also seemed cavalier about the lead paint issue, saying our daughter would have to eat leaded paint chips for a few years for there to be damage. Not true, obviously.

We looked through all the official lead paint literature we could find, it ALL said to tell the city. Our doctor told us to tell the city, and two lawyers we know told us to tell the city.

We discussed it, and told the city.

The next day we each received multiple calls from the landlord, and they didn't leave any messages.

Now I'm afraid I've stepped in it. Should I have not called the city? I know it will be expensive for the building, and they will hate us now.

But if we didn't call the city and they did a crappy repair job it would make it even more dangerous for our child. And isn't the onus on them to not have this stuff a danger?

Now all these people are telling me I screwed up, I shouldn't have called the city, I should've given the landlords a chance. We just moved here, and I fear I poisoned the well.

What should I have done?

And is there any way out of this other than it being horrible?

This sucks.