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According to the U.S. Public Health Service, lead poisoning remains the most common and societally devastating environmental disease of young children. About 16 percent all American children have blood lead levels in the neurotoxic range. Being poor dramatically increases this risk. The lead industry has long camouflaged lead's toxicity. Department of Housing and Urban Development reforms are ineffectual. (MLH)

Discusses the mounting evidence for the neurological damage of childhood lead poisoning. Argues that ignoring lead poisoning is more expensive than preventing it. Reviews a recent plan to eradicate lead poisoning and the sociological factors that may impede its implementation. (CJS)

In the environmental health literature, errors in interpreting studies or data are not infrequent. Many are of the Type II variety. Common solecisms of this type are: treating the criterion of p [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the environmental health literature, errors in interpreting studies or data are not infrequent. Many are of the Type II variety. Common solecisms of this type are: treating the criterion of p < 0.05 as a sacrament; demanding complete confounder control; arguing for the existence of phantom confounders; arguing that the effect size is trivial; building nonveridical models; arguing for no effect from inadequate sample size; demanding causal proof; arguing that causality is reversed; conducting a ballot of published studies. These are examined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1991, the Public Health Service published the Strategic Plan for the Elimination of Childhood Lead Poisoning. This document marked a fundamental shift in federal policy from finding and treating lead-poisoned children to authentic primary prevention. It spelled out a 15-year strategy to achieve this goal and provided a cost-benefit analysis showing that the monetized benefits far exceeded the costs of abatement. A strong national effort to eliminate the disease developed. Now, 7 years after publication of the plan, primary prevention of lead exposure has Been abandoned. This article examines the role of some prevailing attitudes and institutions in derailing the effort. Some institutions-the lead industry, real estate interests, and insurance interests-behaved as anticipated. Others, including private pediatricians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, some federal agencies, and a public interest group ostensibly dedicated to eliminating lead poisoning, also played an unexpected part in derailing the plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent data have demonstrated health effects of lead in children at doses previously believed to be harmless. Data from epidemiological studies in many countries, and from experimental studies of animals given lead, demonstrate psychological impairment at blood lead concentrations of 0.5-0.7 µmol/L. Current estimates are that 17 per cent of American children (3-4 million) exceed the level of 0.7 µmol/L. Lead exposure is not a problem for urban poor children alone, but inner-city minorities have a higher rate of exposure. The overabundance of lead coexists in the same area with two serious shortages: affordable housing and jobs. It is argued that a program to train unemployed inner-city residents in safe de-leading, while expensive, makes hygienic, economic, and common sense. (Am J Public Health 1989; 79:643-645.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]