Fifty Years of Peeling Away the Lead Paint Problem

Fifty Years of Peeling Away the Lead Paint Problem: Saving Our Children's Future documents the history of childhood lead poisoning from paint between 1970 and 2022. These years marked scientific progress that helped overcome technical, political and policy challenges, with important implications for solving other seemingly intractable problems.Tracing the failure of the medical model (treatment after exposure) that marked the 1970s and 1980s and its replacement with a prevention housing-focused effort (acting before exposure), the book documents the changes in health, housing and environmental science and policy. It is the first book to examine in detail how the main lead poisoning law in the U.S. was passed in 1992 and later implemented, with implications for the future, in particular the emergence of a global healthy housing movement. Fifty Years of Peeling Away the Lead Paint Problem: Saving Our Children's Future describes the roles played by Congress, various Administrations, agencies, local governments, the private sector, researchers, and a popular citizen's movement, especially parents. The role of the courts is discussed, including a controversial lead paint case on research ethics in Baltimore through an environmental justice lens. This book is the first to examine another recent case in California, where ten local jurisdictions established a precedent by successfully suing the lead paint industry to help pay for abatement. The references also include first-hand sources and extensive peer-reviewed scientific literature.

Public Health, Environmental Health and Housing Professionals