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- Up one level
- Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner - "Cater to the children": the role of the lead industry in a public health tragedy, 1900-1955
American Journal of Public Health: January 2000, Vol. 90, No. 1, pp. 36-46. (Includes link to PDF) Abstract: "A major source of childhood lead poisoning, still a serious problem in the United States, is paint. The dangers of lead were known even in the 19th century, and the particular dangers to children were documented in the English-language literature as early as 1904. During the first decades of the 20th century, many other countries banned or restricted the use of lead paint for interior painting. Despite this knowledge, the lead industry in the United States did nothing to discourage the use of lead paint on interior walls and woodwork. In fact, beginning in the 1920s, the Lead Industries Association and its members conducted an intensive campaign to promote the use of paint containing white lead, even targeting children in their advertising. It was not until the 1950s that the industry, under increasing pressure, adopted a voluntary standard limiting the amount of lead in interior paints."
- Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner - Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution
See http://deceitanddenial.org/ for numerous related material, including primary documents. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner - Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, With a New Epilogue. California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public, January 2013 (e-book available)
- Herbert Needleman - Childhood lead poisoning: the promise and abandonment of primary prevention
American Journal of Public Health December 1998: Vol. 88, No. 12, pp. 1871-1877. (includes link to PDF) Abstract: "In 1991, the Public Health Service published the Strategic Plan for the Elimination of Childhood Lead Poisoning. This document marked a fundamental shift in federal policy from finding and treating lead-poisoned children to authentic primary prevention. It spelled out a 15-year strategy to achieve this goal and provided a cost-benefit analysis showing that the monetized benefits far exceeded the costs of abatement. A strong national effort to eliminate the disease developed. Now, 7 years after publication of the plan, primary prevention of lead exposure has been abandoned. This article examines the role of some prevailing attitudes and institutions in derailing the effort. Some institutions--the lead industry, real estate interests, and insurance interests--behaved as anticipated. Others, including private pediatricians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, some federal agencies, and a public interest group ostensibly dedicated to eliminating lead poisoning, also played an unexpected part in derailing the plan."
- Public health challenges - lead and environmental/occupational health