Document rp5vYdnQ9RB98NLGyp6XMKzZ0

PRATT -- 8/5/69 LEAD INDUSTRY RESPONSE TO LEGISLATION AGAINST LEAD PAINTS *-*^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 flaked lead paint which was applied many years ago. *I 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 L IA25035 tfr JjMr il>.jjfei of 14 loaded point by children. However, If legislative >ctle* la believed desirable to smphasixs the ovoldanoo of lead-based paints in Awllinm aactwashmuld be directed toward palate used on interiors only -- not tll lead-based Wats. Since the 1920's, the.lead Industry has sponsored scientific and nodical research to laata sore about health effects of lead ingestion and absorption, to i find better ways of preventing lead over-exposures, and to develop new and more affective aethode of diagnosis and treatment of lead intoxication. The Lead Industries Association's Health and Safety prograa 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 l or reduction of practically all industrial and accidental lead absorption cases -- with ana major exception. That exception is the eating or chewing of old lead paint by children in the slun areas of major 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 trinmings 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 ^ 'yog:* . `4 3?*T'^ ' :,T^' ` -'*:; #ftb lnrpaslwe tm have Active programs trying todo the old lead paint froo place* where children can set fe$.* net..* ' ' r 4". y |4, `. 1.: JD) bnpp children from getting et any paint chip* that nay contain |*V::,len4. thin for parents or baby sitters to aake sure that peeling paint is P^v; i- kept H.aened np and that children arw kept fron chewing on old paint aorfaces. 4 I'r'.i ' 3. fo wt--rega physiclens, public health, social workers, conaemity action groups, and pacest* to be on tba alert for signs of load poisoning in **51 Children and to prowlie pronpt end adequate treatment. Bet it la enaantial to emphasise that the sources of this lead paint problem era in the peat. New paints are not involved. Most importantly, as ,3/mm --tiled earlier, sons 90 pereent of lead-based paints are entirely devoted to eseendel Industrial uses. i Bben the fact that children were eating the old lead paint chips beeaae known and understood, the lead and paint industries cooperated in developing the American Standards Association Coda on Interior Paints which requires that ell paints for hone interiors contain no toxic lead. But there is protection beyond these paint standards too. Uhlte leaded paints for exterior use are expensive compared with the modern non-lead paints made specially for interior work. They are harder to apply. They take longer to dry -- several days as cenpared with a few hours or less. And there is no question but that they ere smelly and annoying. For these reasons alone, neither professional nor amateur Interior pointers 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 Jt.* -<u. tIA 25037 I 4 w- , S Chat U4i fdlmenlpg k sot found among children In newly constructed housing projects ^ City, even when these were In district* which had s high .tpeldamosof lead intoxication. v *fti* lndlcetss," Teports the Government publication, "that lead pals*etag la shildren la Inextricably linked to old, dilapidated housing." Ibis dbearvatloQ was further confined by a study in Cleveland which la dtad by Bt. J. J. Chisolm of Johns Bopklns University School of Medicine -- ass of tbs nation's authorities on childhood lead poisoning. A Cleveland study of 801 young children In old housing showed that 38 children, or 4.7 percent, a bad "plumblam" -- tbs medical ten for lead intoxication. But of the 10S Children studied who lived in e new housing project, no caae of pluablam was l fjpasd. the Land Industries Association has been cooperating with many city health departments Which are conducting programs to keep children from eating these eld lead paints. As association recently published a Facts Bulletin on Lead and Pediatrics that deals directly and 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 well-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