Government Response to Lead Poisoning from Paint: Historical Lessons and Legacies

Abstract

Lead is a nondegradable neurotoxin whose heavy, and often unregulated, use since the industrial revolution has secured its place today as a widespread environmental contaminant. This paper focuses on one lead industry—painting—where, since the beginning of the twentieth century, a number of doctors, public health officials, factory inspectors and trade unions in Australia, Europe and the United States had been lobbying for its proscription. In this broad examination of government response, the actions of the Australian and Queensland authorities in refusing to ban a substance responsible for widespread occupational and childhood poisoning can be seen as part of an international trend which prioritised the interests of national economies over health. Regrettably, government reluctance to act promptly by prohibiting the use of lead paint pigments has ensured that lead poisoning continues to be a major occupational and public health problem today.