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Thomas v. Mallett7/15/2005
hite lead carbonate remain the same notwithstanding the formulary differences between the white lead carbonate pigments. Mushak states that there is little relationship between chemical diversity and the "bioavailability" of the lead, which refers to the lead uptake or lead absorption into the human body. Mushak explains that " he reasons why one cannot automatically equate differences in chemical composition with differences in bioavailability is because bioavailability operates via a set of biological, biochemical and physico-chemical processes that will often render starting forms of lead in pigments indistinguishable in toxicokinetic terms." Based on observational evidence (which Mushak characterizes as "the huge body of toxicological literature showing that lead paint poisoning is pervasive and rather uniformly intense as to the severity of exposures") and laboratory evidence, Mushak concludes that there is no basis to conclude that formulary changes among white lead carbonates affect the bioavailability of the lead.
C. Knowledge of the Toxicity of Lead Pigments
In 1848, Samuel L. Dana, an American doctor, translated the first complete clinical description of lead poisoning based on over 1,000 cases, written by Tanquerel des Planches of France in 1839. Planches' work obtained preeminent status and was a leading authority on the dangers of lead through at least the 1920s. That treatise recognized the dangers of repeated inhalation of small quantities of lead.
By the turn of the 20th century, it was well-recognized that controlling lead dust could significantly reduce lead poisoning, although the recognition was initially limited to industrial settings. European countries had acknowledged the harm of lead dust, and by 1910, Germany, England, and France were already regulating lead industries to protect their workers from lead dust and fumes. That same year, in the United States at a meeting of the Superintendents of the National Lead Company, Dr. Alice Hamilton, M.D., the founder of industrial hygiene, applauded these countries' efforts and detailed the advanced protections European workers enjoyed. Given the dwindling numbers of lead poisoning in those European countries that passed regulatory legislation, Hamilton called on American industries to reform their practices to mimic their European counterparts. Above all, she argued, the first step was to abolish, or at least reduce to the greatest extent possible, lead dust.
Consistent with Hamilton's assessment, National Lead reported to its stockholders in 1912 that " n the manufacture of the various products of Lead, there are two sources of danger to the health of workmen therein employed; viz., the fumes arising from the smelting or melting of metallic lead, and the dust arising in the process of making white lead and lead oxides." Seven years later, in 1919, the Chairman of National Lead Company's Manufacturing Committee described that " he prime object" for safely handling white lead and other lead dust was "to keep lead dust out of the nose and mouth of the worker ."
Other than manufacturing, Hamilton also monitored trade painters. In 1913, at the International Congress of Master Painters, Hamilton suggested that painters not use white lead paints for interior work. Her suggestion was not generally followed, and, in 1919, she lamented that painting was "the most notorious of the lead trades" as "painters make up the large majority of the cases of lead poisoning." Aside from smeared paint present on the painters' hands that could be carried to the mouth, Hamilton noted that paint dust, caused primarily by rubbing old or new paint with sandpaper, "is universally recognized as the most dangerou
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