Document gbK2bgG9eVKMvN3Oe1YR8Y9rG

PRATT -- 8/5/69 LEAD INDUSTRY RESPONSE TO LEGISLATION AGAINST LEAD PAINTS Li^25034 The Lead Industries Association is entirely sympathetic with any groups' concern in attempting to solve the problem of children who are harmed by eating old leaded paint. The lead industry has long recognized that improperly handled or used lead compounds can have ill effects on humans if excessive amounts are absorbed into their systems. However, since there is a need for lead in so many applications the industry has pioneered in the development of programs designed to prevent con ditions that could result in hazardous Industrial over-exposures to lead. In addition, the ingestion of lead by children has been of particular concern. There are three major factors concerning childhood lead poisoning: First: The major source for lead poisoning are the older areas of our nation's cities -- often slums -- where children, mostly under five years old, are exposed to old lead paint applied to the interior of buildings more than 30 years ago. Today, interior paints do not contain toxic amounts of lead. Thus, present day paints and painting practices are not a problem. The problem is to prevent children from chewing on, or eating, the flalced lead paint which was applied many years ago. A( Second: Some 90 percent of all lead-based paints presently manufactured are used for such purposes as corrosion protection for bridges, highway structures, and the bright yellow divider lines which prevent accidents on the nation's high ways. These do not constitute a hazard for children. . Third: Any consideration of a ban on the sale of all lead-based paints will not solve the childhood lead intoxication problem because this stems from paints no longer in use. Such prohibitions and restrictions, if enacted, would be undesirable as well as detrimental to public safety. Legislation is not the LIA2 5 035 * v.-. ?' 4 - "t i$? v^r ,` -. -2- tfr IMr Itgeetlsm of old loaded point by children. However, If legislative >ctiem im bllltVtd desirable to emphasise the avoidance of lead-baaed paints In ' -' . ' * h y dwelling*, aoctem should be directed toward paints used on interiors only -- not {i,;' ' k ' ell '' t. . * Since the 1920's, the.lead Industry has sponsored scientific end nodical '` . -*' vf. '? 'i res'earch to Imam nore about health effects of lead ingestion and absorption, to %: : - find better wears of preventing lead over-exposures, and to develop new and nore -V" effective nethods of diagnosis and treatment of lead intoxication. The Lead Industries Association's Health and Safety program is devoted to helping lead producers, lead users, and others in preventing exposures that could result in - - lead intoxication. The result has been considerable progress in the elimination '' . t' or reduction of practically all industrial and accidental lead absorption cases -- with one major exception. That exception is the eating or chewing of old lead paint by children in the slum areas of aujor cities, mostly in the midwest and east. Despite many years of effort -- going back to the thirties -- the problem still exists in some - cities. However, remarkable progress has been made in many cities to bring the problem under control end to reduce or eliminate deaths or serious disability resulting from lead paint eating. The problem is simple. Unfortunately, the solution is not. In many dwellings, particularly those in run-down areas, the paint applied many years ago on the walls or window sills or other trimmings still contains lead. And ` some of this flakes off. Some small children may chew on the paint or eat the paint chips. If they do this continually over a period of time -- authorities . say about three months -- they accumulate enough lead to result in serious illness. LIA 25036 ;$** dtth lergaelwe m have get!** VTOgrams tacyJng' tcalo the old lead paint from places where children can get pi**-..- t\ - '. .. *v 2. Xh bagfi children free getting et any paint chip* that nay contain g'^ * : { .: . . ' ' ` " ' ' . |T'--.lend. Thin Mile tot parents or baby sitters to nafce sere that peeling paint is gr'' : fp kept cleaned ep and Act children ate kept from choiring on old paint surfaces. fUc. . S. TO aneetage physicians,' public health, social workers, coanunity action giro ape, and patnete to be on the alert for eigne of lead poisoning in Aildree and to preside prompt end adequate treatment. Bet it is essential to emphasise that the sources of this lead paint problem are in the pest. New paints are not involved. Moat importantly, as -u .j/m nantiened earlier, eoae 90 percent of lead-based paints ere entirely devoted to essential industrial uses. 1 Asm the fact that children were eating the old lead paint chips becaae known and understood, the lead end paint industries cooperated in developing the American Standards Association Code on Interior Paints which requires that all paints for bans interiors contain no toxic lead. But there is protection beyond these paint standards too. White leaded paints for exterior use are expensive compared with the modern non-lead paints made especially for Interior work. They ere harder to apply. They take longer to dry -- several days as compared with a few hours or less. And there is no question but that they ere smelly and annoying. Por these reasons alone, neither professional nor amateur interior painters use the lead-based paints -- even if they were available -- when he has the modern, cheaper and more easily applied interior paints. - There is no question that old paint is the source of the problem. In the publication "Load Poisoning in Children," published by the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, it is stated LIA25037 . i y - 4- Chat Kbwi<K wit sot found among children In newly constructed housing projects City, even when these were In district* which had a high .tpddaOMof Aflifcood lead intoxication. v *HitM Indicates," reports the Government publication, "that lead prtsUsfmg is children le Inextricably linked to old, dilapidated housing." This dbeervatlon was further confined by a study In Cleveland which la cited by hr. J. J. CMaoln of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine -- * ess of tbs nation's snthoritles os dilldhood lead poisoning. A Cleveland study of 801 young children In old housing showed that 38 children, or 4.7 percent, s had "plushlas" -- the sedical ten for lead Intoxication. But of the 10S Children studied who lived in a new housing project, no case of plush Ism was t found. fhe Land Industries Association has been cooperating with many city health departments Which are conducting programs to keep children from eating ' .* these eld lead paints. The association recently published a Facts Bulletin on Lead and Pediatrics that deals directly end extensively with this problem. This has been distributed free of charge to public health doctors, nurses, social workers, and others concerned with coping with this childhood problem. The lead Industry supports and encourages Intensive and wall-planned programs designed to remove the old lead paint, and to keep children from eating it. This is where the solution of the problem lies. Legislation relating to new paints, and especially legislation that would apply to the necessary industrial and outdoor protective paints, will not contribute to the solution of the childhood lead poisoning problem. It would be a disservice to the public to suggest that any such ban is even a partial solution. ### LIA25038