Great debate on environmental lead poisoning in the U.S.A.: a historical analysis.

Lead poisoning am ong children in poor district of old Am erican cities is a v ery A merican ph enom enon .199) Lead poisonin g h as b een th e m ost prev alent of childhood toxicological disea ses in A merica , but is easily prev entable. T he m ain source of lead poisoning in children has been chips or du st of lead paint , w hich h ad long been u sed. A s early as 1894 in Brisban e, Au stralia , T urn er an d colleagu es reported on cases of childhood lead poisoning du e to leadba sed paint . In the 1920s , m any European countries b ann ed th e u se of leadba sed paint , but in Am erica it cont inued to b e u sed. Not until the 1970s did th e Am erican g ov ernm ent b egan to t ake act ion again st the hazards of environmental lead. In the 1970s , the n ew Environm ental P rot ect ion A g en cy (EPA ) issued it s fir st regulat ion s on lead emis sion s , and th e Congress ident ified lead based paint as a h ealth hazard, an d ordered that it no long er be u sed in federally sub sidized h ou sin g . N ev ertheless , lead remain ed on the paint ed w alls and w oodw ork of dw elling s , an d m any children w ould continue to suffer from lead tox icity .200) W hy did it tak e m ore than a half century to regulat e environm ental lead pollut ion in A merica? A ccordin g to Graebner , th e lead indu stries ex ercised enorm ou s influen ce ov er the produ ct ion and dissemination of kn ow ledg e about lead poisonin g in the period from 1925 to 1965.201) T h e prim ary lead ex tracting and sm elt in g indu stry in A merica had