Airborne Lead: The Last Regulatory Frontier

Lead poisoning is caused by an accumulation of lead in the body over many months and years. Young children are especially susceptible to the disease, which affects their cognitive and physical development.

The document we are highlighting today is from the Lead Industries Association (LIA), dated May 14th, 1971. The LIA was the leading trade association for companies making lead-based products.

This document contains two parts. The first is an inter-office memo discussing the causes of lead poisoning in children during the summer, and the second is a scientific article referenced in the memo.

The memorandum was sparked by the EPA and its deliberations over whether to declare current atmospheric lead levels too high -- enough such that they might push children "over the threshold into overt [lead] poisioning."

The LIA's Sue Gendernalik questioned the EPA argument, likening it to a "300-lb lady claiming it was the last ounce that made her obese."

The memo quoted several studies that showed that lead poisoning in children was primarily caused by ingestion of lead chips rather than breathing in lead particles through the atmosphere. There also existed a strong connection between socioeconomic status and lead poisoning, with children living in older homes with peeling paint having much higher rates of lead poisoning:

Finally, the memo commented on data that showed higher instances of lead poisoning amongst children during the summer months:

Gendernalik argued that this in fact demonstrated airborne lead's effects were far less than one might think, given the several months required for lead poisoning to take place after entry into the body.

Lead would not be banned from gasoline for more than another decade. Each time regulatory agencies sought to move on it, they faced extraordinary resistance from private firms and industry trade groups like the LIA, which invoked arguments like the ones above.

We now know that leaded gasoline remains a significant source of lead contamination. Residual lead is regularly found at high levels in soils, to take just one example. Here's a good summary of this legacy from NPR.

Further, historical evidence, much of it available on this site, shows that the industry was well aware of leaded gasoline's dangers even in the early 20th-century.