El Is for Lead

A Bushwick restaurant owner is demanding that the MTA address hazardous levels of lead he says he discovered in paint chips underneath elevated subway structures of the J, M and Z lines.

After seeing how years of neglect let rust eat away at the el, Salvatore Polizzi—co-owner of Tony’s Pizzeria and Restaurant on Knickerbocker Avenue—had paint chips under the Myrtle-Wyckoff, Myrtle Avenue/Broadway and Knickerbocker Avenue stations tested at an independent lab.

The samples came back showing high levels of lead—in some cases more than 12 times the legal limit.

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