How The Toxic Lead Industry Lied To The Public For Decades

Sometimes, it’s important to look at history and see what we can learn from it:

We’ll not bury the lead

Firstly, why/how lead is poisonous: the body mistakes lead for essential metals such as calcium, iron, and zinc, allowing it to interfere with critical biological processes throughout the body.

Most notably, in the short term lead disrupts hemoglobin production and competes with iron absorption, contributing to anemia and fatigue, and in the long term, lead crosses the blood-brain barrier, damages neurons, disrupts neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, and thus can cause cognitive and behavioral problems.

Beyond that, lead exposure can cause high blood pressure, headaches, pregnancy complications, and abdominal, joint, and muscle pain. Children are also particularly susceptible, since developing bodies and brains are especially sensitive to lead, which can cause developmental delays, learning difficulties, behavioral problems, seizures, coma, and death.

Do you know what the safe amount of lead to be exposed to is?

Zero.

And yet, lead became widely used because it was easily shaped into products such as pipes and cookware and served as an effective pigment in paints and cosmetics, even though observers as far back as Ancient Rome and Renaissance Italy linked lead exposure to poor health among workers.

In modern times, reports of brain damage, convulsions, and deaths among children exposed to lead paint became widespread during the early 20th century. Still, despite restrictions adopted by many countries after action by the League of Nations in 1921, the American lead industry promoted lead products and advocated for leaded gasoline.

This was not completely unopposed; organizations including the Young Lords and the Black Panther Party helped draw attention to lead poisoning during the 1960s. But this was just met with industry deflection, as lead companies did their well-funded best to shift responsibility onto lower-income parents, rather than acknowledge the dangers of lead exposure.

By the time the 70s came around, pediatrician Dr. Herbert Needleman and colleagues analyzed children’s baby teeth and found widespread lead exposure among schoolchildren, and noted that children with higher lead levels in their baby teeth performed worse on cognitive and behavioral assessments—and still, industry groups attempted to discredit the research.

Change did eventually come; the United States gradually restricted lead paint in the 70s, lead water pipes in the 80s, and leaded gasoline for on-road vehicles in the 90s. But decades of widespread lead use left persistent contamination in paint, soil, and water that remains a public health problem to this day—lead paint still contaminates environments worldwide, and tens of millions of Americans still receive drinking water through lead pipes.

How about yours?

For more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

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Take care!