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Thomas v. Mallett7/15/2005
edical journals that linked lead-based paint in particular to childhood lead poisoning. In addition to the previously identified dangers of painted crib railings (which, by 1926, was identified in 15 medical journals in the United States as a risk), windowsills, porch railings, children's furniture, and any other painted articles around the home that were within the child's reach were identified as posing risks to children. Aside from children's penchant for placing items in their mouths to chew, in 1926 researchers also recognized that absorption of lead dust, white lead carbonate dust in particular, could be rapidly absorbed by children's respiratory system. Merely sleeping in a lead-laden room, with little ventilation, was discovered to cause lead poisoning. As Dr. Ruddock warned, "A child lives in a lead world." Through the mounting evidence, the rising sentiment was that underscoring the dangers of non-industrial sources for lead in child lead poisoning cases "cannot be too strongly emphasized."
Thomas's public health historians, Gerald E. Markowitz, Ph.D., and David Rosner, Ph.D. (hereinafter "Markowitz and Rosner"), opine that by the mid-1920s there was "strong and ample convergent evidence of the toxicity of lead paint" in general, and the dangers it posed to children in particular. Markowitz and Rosner conclude that given the increasing evidence, "the manufacturers of lead pigments should have ceased producing it, at the very least for interior use, before the mid-1920s."
As the number of medical journals increased their reporting on child lead poisoning, so too did the official data on child lead poisoning fatalities. Between 1921 and 1930, the number of child lead poisoning fatalities documented by the Bureau of the Census nearly quadrupled from the past decade, to 31.
The literature on childhood lead poisoning continued to grow during the 1930's. In 1930, physicians asserted that lead poisoning from ingesting paint from cribs, woodwork, or toys was "proven beyond a doubt." Some researchers reiterated early sentiments that child lead poisoning was chronic and was occurring more frequently among infants and children than had been supposed, mostly because physicians frequently did not recognize the condition. The conclusions that lead paint was the main culprit and that children were especially vulnerable to its toxicity were regularly repeated.
While it was discovered during the 1930s that lead caused permanent neurological disorders, by 1943, Randolph Byers, M.D., and Elizabeth Lord, Ph.D. (hereinafter "Byers and Lord"), found that lead poisoning had effects on long-term intellectual development by retarding mental development. As seen below, their findings would cause quite a stir in the lead industry. Time magazine summarized Byers and Lord's findings under the headline, "Paint Eaters," writing: "All but one child . . . were school failures. Only five had normal I.Q.s, and four of the five were so erratic that they could not learn easily." Building on these findings, research during the 1970s demonstrated that lead levels that did not give rise to clinical symptoms might nonetheless adversely affect psychological and intellectual development.
E. The Pigment Manufacturers and the Lead Industries Association (LIA)
In 1928, the rising alarms regarding the hazards of lead and the need for coordination among lead producers and manufacturers led to the formation of the Lead Industries Association (LIA). Although comprised of many lead industries, the white lead industry was the most important of the lead manufacturing industries in the LIA.
Virtually from its inception, the LIA was responding to what it terme
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