This is a map of lead-paint risk taken all the way down to individual homes, here on Detroit's East Side. Each dot is a real residential parcel from the City of Detroit's own property records, colored by the decade it was built. Older homes are far more likely to contain lead paint, so the age of a building is a strong first guess at where the hazards are. We built this from Detroit's open data, the same way we built the New York map from New York's. A lead program could take this map, match it against the addresses of the families it already serves, and get back a clear list of which homes to check first.
| Address | Built | Lead-paint likelihood |
|---|---|---|
| 644 Field | 1875 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1754 Hibbard | 1880 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1446 Van Dyke | 1880 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1515 Parker | 1880 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 936 Fischer | 1885 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 436 Field | 1885 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1799 Sheridan | 1885 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1454 Van Dyke | 1890 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1806 Van Dyke | 1890 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1743 Van Dyke | 1890 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 3647 Townsend | 1890 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1075 Burns | 1890 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1026 E Grand Blvd | 1890 | 90% (pre-1940) |
| 1439 Van Dyke | 1890 | 90% (pre-1940) |
This map shows you where to look first, not which homes definitely have lead. To confirm the hazard in a specific home, you need a field test. FluoroSpec is a low-cost lead-detection kit that does exactly that: you spray a small amount of a reagent (methylammonium bromide) on a painted surface, and under a UV flashlight it glows bright green wherever there is lead paint or lead dust.
