Open AccessWarnings unheeded: a history of child lead poisoning.
Author(s) -
Rick Rabin
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.79.12.1668
Subject(s) - lead poisoning , public health , medicine , environmental health , lead exposure , hazard , health hazard , occupational safety and health , lead (geology) , suicide prevention , medical emergency , poison control , pediatrics , psychiatry , nursing , cats , chemistry , organic chemistry , pathology , geomorphology , geology
Child lead poisoning has been a major public health issue only for the last 20-25 years. However, awareness that lead-based paint is a source of lead poisoning in children dates back to the first few years of the twentieth century. Articles in medical journals and textbooks appeared in the United States and elsewhere, recounting cases of children poisoned by the lead paint in their homes on woodwork, baby cribs, and other furniture. The number of positively diagnosed cases was limited both by the imprecision of diagnostic tools and physicians' lack of familiarity with the signs and symptoms of plumbism in children. Nevertheless, a number of hospitals and at least one large city health department recorded numerous cases of child lead poisoning in the 1920s and 1930s. The mounting evidence in those years made it clear that child lead poisoning was a serious public health hazard. And the activities and statements of the lead industry's representatives left little doubt that they were aware of the dangers of lead paint. Nevertheless, the lead paint companies continued to manufacture and sell their product well past 1940.