MULTIGENERATIONAL POISONING: APPREHENDING LEAD EXPOSURE IN EAST TRENTON, NEW JERSEY

Abstract

Lead hazards as they occur in Trenton, NJ present a significant threat to the environment and the wellbeing of its residents. As extensive as efforts from the city may be to address lead-related issues, they fail to encompass the extent of the situation. This may be because the severity of what’s occurring in Trenton has not yet been grasped, or apprehended. Through ethnographic and academic research, this paper complicates our understanding of what I consider to be a lead crisis in Trenton. This crisis is exacerbated by various pathways of exposure and the city’s exclusion of a significant portion of the population from remediation efforts, whom officials do not believe can be victimized by the haunting effects of lead exposure. By identifying the ways in which toxicity persists across generations in Trenton, this paper provides an alternative perspective to lead-related matters in the city, prompting change in how the city addresses such issues, and encouraging officials to adopt a more holistic approach instead.