NEW YORK — After waking up each morning with swollen eyes and hair falling out in clumps, New York City public housing resident Sheletha Hill landed in a hospital emergency room with suspected arsenic poisoning in March.
A urine sample showed arsenic levels of 117 micrograms per liter — more than double the threshold triggering a report to the state — and Hill was treated in an emergency room for “symptoms concerning for arsenic toxicity,” according to medical records she shared with POLITICO.
Hill is not alone: Several similarly ailing neighbors at the Jacob Riis Houses in Manhattan’s East Village, a sprawling complex run by the New York City Housing Authority, share her concern that their tap water is to blame.
That presents a problem for Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who declared the tap water at Riis Houses safe to drink in 2022, following another water contamination scare.
