The action came after a yearlong investigation by the Department of the Public Advocate into lead poisoning in Camden, Trenton, Newark, East Orange and Irvington. Those five cities accounted for 31 percent of reported lead-poisoning cases in New Jersey in fiscal 2005.

"The public advocate's report is quite compelling," Corzine said. "Lead poisoning is a public health crisis that has irreversible effects on children and even adults, and we need to do all we can to address this crisis head on."

The risk of lead poisoning is higher for New Jerseyans than for many other Americans because an estimated 60 percent of the state's housing - compared with 40 percent nationwide - was built before 1978, when the sale of lead-based paint was banned.

The Department of the Public Advocate also found that many children in New Jersey are not tested for lead poisoning despite a state mandate that children be tested twice by age 6, preferably once when they're 1 and again when they're 2. For example, a third of the children born in fiscal 2005 were not tested in their first year.

The Department of the Public Advocate conducted tests late last year in 104 homes where one or more children had been poisoned by lead in the last 10 years. At least one-third of those homes had undergone a lead abatement, yet lead-dust levels in 85 exceeded federal standards, the department found. In addition, lead levels in the blood of some children in the homes were higher than they were before abatements allegedly took place.

The department immediately urged families in the homes with elevated lead levels to have children tested. Families were assigned social workers and referred to legal-services lawyers for lead-abatement and relocation help.

The department is working with the Department of Health and Senior Services and the Department of Community Affairs to improve the state's procedures for protecting children from lead.

The executive order calls on the Department of Health and Senior Services to consider lowering the level of lead at which a child is considered poisoned, reinspect the 85 homes found with elevated lead levels, determine the feasibility of recommending blood-lead screening for pregnant women, and develop educational materials for the public, among other steps.

It calls on the Department of Community Affairs to review its monitoring of lead-evaluation and abatement contractors and its standards for treating lead-paint hazards.

"We can prevent our children from being sickened, suffering brain damage, and even dying due to an environmental contamination in their homes," Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen said. "I commend all of the parties involved, and especially Gov. Corzine, for recognizing the seriousness of this problem and for taking these important first steps to solving it - forever."

Lead poisoning can cause brain damage, developmental delays, hearing impairments, behavioral problems, convulsions, a coma and even death, according to the Department of the Public Advocate.

Ruth Hutchison of Riverton attended the Trenton news conference yesterday with her son Malachi, who is 4.

After elevated lead levels were found in Malachi's blood during a routine physical exam, Hutchison's family had to move several times, spending several stints in hotels, while their rental homes were cleaned of lead.

"I'm still worried," Hutchison said, adding that Malachi would have another follow-up test for lead today. "I'm hoping that it's done."

Lead Problems in New Jersey

Problems specified by the state public advocate include:

New Jersey's housing stock is old, with more than half the houses built before the sale of lead paint was banned in 1978. While the lead-poisoning problem is statewide, it is particularly bad in older, urban areas.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Jersey's rate of poisoning is above not only the national average but also the rates in other Northeastern states - such as New York and Massachusetts - with similarly old housing stock.

Cleaning up, or abating, a home after a child is known to have been poisoned has taken months and even years.

In the last 10 years in five selected cities, local health inspectors ordered abatements only about 60 percent of the time when a child had been poisoned. About 20 percent of those orders were not followed.

Abatement contractors have at times gotten away with shoddy work because standards governing their performance are insufficiently precise.

SOURCE: Office of Gov. Corzine