The dangers of lead poisoning were known as early as 1897, when children in Australia became ill from chewing on lead painted porch railings and again in 1907, it was known that lead poisoning resulted when paint powder stuck on children’s fingers and was then put into their mouths. In the US, workers exposed to lead paint pigment became ill and that toxicity was well documented as early as 1910. The serious danger of lead paint to children went unacknowledged until the mid-1920’s. 1930 brought agreement among scientists that lead paint was hazardous.
The lead industry cited the company line that the hazards of lead paint and lead poisoning were minimal and not serious. Although the Lead Industries Association (LIA) had a unique opportunity to advocate for the safety and health of children, they instead chose to protect their economic position and did nothing to discourage the use of lead-based paints. Instead, the lead industry began a campaign to promote further use of lead paint for both the interior and exterior of homes through World War II. Worse, this advertising was even directed at children by using a cute “Dutch Boy character as advertising mascot.
National Lead Company used their famous Dutch Boy logo in a widely used in a “Don’t Forget the Children” campaign through paint stores. National Lead Company produced paint books for kids including Dutch Boy Conquers Old Man Gloom and The Dutch Boy’s Lead Party where Dutch Boy character mixes white lead with bright colors to paint furniture and walls. Another ad shows a baby crawling across the floor, touching a lead painted wall. The caption reads “There is no worry when fingerprint smudges or dirt spots appear on a wall painted with Dutch Boy white-lead.” That message implied that walls and woodwork covered with lead paint were safer for a children to handle and touch.
Lead Industries Association (LIA) launched a campaign in 1938 meant to “help dispel fear or apprehension about its use” and “to offset the stigma attached to lead.” This campaign clearly promoted the use of lead paint for interiors of low cost homes because of the affordability compared to paint without lead. In 1940 the campaign expanded to promote lead paint for use in government institutions like public schools and health facilities, further endangering children at school and during doctor visits.
TIME magazine made childhood lead poisoning a national issue in December 1943, in an article by pediatrician Randolf Byers and psychologist Elizabeth Lord. The article was originally published in American Journal of Diseases of Children. The article reported that “parents’ lack of understanding of the dangers of lead-based paint led many to use the toxic material on toys, cribs and windowsills. When children chewed the painted surfaces, a variety of physical and nervous disorders resulted.”
The two discovered that of those children tested, all were school failures (but one) and just five of those tested children had even normal IQ’s. The Lead Industries Association disputed this claim by stating that the data collected by Byers and Lord was unreliable and that the relationship between childhood lead poisoning and mental retardation in the tested children was unproven. The LIA even claimed that previous cases of lead poisoning had not been proven conclusively.
In December 1945 the Lead Industries Association once again launched a campaign to counteract the negative image of lead. They believed that the use of anti-lead information had caused bias against lead products and that it was essential to the lead industry that they counter the “propaganda” being circulated in the United States. The LIA offered their own propaganda focusing on safety and hygiene meant to counteract literature claiming that lead was hazardous to workers and children. The LIA continuously argued there was very little danger to the public from lead products.
In 1952 the Lead Industries Association promoted white lead paints for all interior and exterior painting even under the mounting evidence of lead’s hazards. LIA Director of Health and Safety ignored 197 reports of lead poisoning in multiple cities with as many as forty fatal cases. He went so far as to call the lead poisoning deaths of children a “major headache” and just a source of bad publicity. In the 1950’s, newspapers around the country reported increasingly about the hazards of lead paint. In 1952 there were more than 500 news reports about lead poisoning. Then in July 1956 a story titled, “Don’t Let YOUR Child Get Lead Poisoning.” ran in PARADE magazine. That story reached at least seven million people. CBS followed with a broadcast on lead poisoning in children.
Even with more evidence being amassed and common agreement in the medical community that lead paint was hazardous to health, the lead industry did not remove the lead from paint or attempt to warn buyers of the potential dangers. Federal legislation was enacted in 1970 which prohibited the use of lead paint in federally financed, subsidized housing. The Consumer Products Safety Commission entirely banned use of lead paint after February 1978. The National Safety Council estimates that 38 million homes remain containing some type of lead paint and that 25% of all homes still have some type of lead hazards. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are currently 434,000 children between the ages of one in five with elevated levels of lead in their blood.
Source:
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “History of Lead Advertising”. http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/research/project/enviro/hazard/lead/leadadvertising/industry-role.htm
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