Crews Begin Removing Lead Paint at City Parks

Work crews will eliminate lead paint hazards in five Los Angeles city parks by next week and have already begun reopening day-care centers that were closed last month, officials said Wednesday.

Workers are stripping lead-based paint that is chipping on doors, walls and playground equipment and replacing it with paint deemed safe for exposure to children, as directed by county health officials, said parks administrator Leila Barker.

“We’re eliminating any of the lead paint hazards they identified,” Barker told the Recreation and Parks Commission in a briefing Wednesday.

The final site, Travel Town, will take more time because removing old paint from antique, full-sized trains is more complicated than the other work, officials said.

A building used for preschool classes at Rustic Canyon Park has been reopened to children after chairs and shelves containing lead-based paint were replaced.

Work is nearing completion at the Sylmar Recreation Center and Echo Park, while a five-day project will begin today at Shadow Ranch Park in West Hills. Sections of Banning Park are also targeted for repainting.

The alert was announced Dec. 23 after a survey of the city’s 400 parks. Parks officials focused on the 128 parks heavily used by kids and determined that six of those facilities had chipping paint that could be a hazard.

Barker said the county health department has recorded 5,000 cases of suspected lead poisoning in the last decade, but only one involved exposure at a park and it was not a Los Angeles city park.