Toward a Global Perspective: Lessons from America’s ‘Century of Lead’

Abstract

For much of the twentieth century, the United States led the world in both the production of lead products AND the study of lead’s risks. Having brought its own exposures to its lowest levels in a century, America has not taken the lead in continuing that environmental cleansing to the rest of the world. This talk surveys the history of lead and lead poisoning in America and Europe from the late 19th century to the early 21st , focusing on the changing nature of exposures, the creation of knowledge about the health effects of lead, and the regulatory efforts to minimize those health consequences. A century ago, the United States overtook other nations in the production and consumption of lead, but it lagged far behind Europe in keeping its workers safe. The unique dangers of tetraethyl lead, introduced in the mid-1920s, forced America to take a leadership role in the industrial toxicology, and eventually the public health epidemiology of lead. The decades since the 1960s saw a revolution in the definition...