Suing the Paint Companies
By Jon Greenberg on Friday, February 2, 2007.
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In our final segment on childhood lead poisoning, we meet a lawyer who has approached the problem from a new direction.
Neil Leifer with the Boston firm of Thornton and Naumes was part of a team of lawyers who represented the State of Rhode Island in a suit against three national paint companies. In February of last year, a jury found the companies liable for creating a public nuisance by manufacturing and marketing lead-based paint.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Jon Greenberg has more.
The heart of the state’s case in Rhode Island is that it is dealing with a widespread hazard that was created unnecessarily. Attorney Neil Leifer says there is ample proof that by the 1920’s, paint companies, including Sherwin Williams and NL Industries, knew that lead was a dangerous substance and more important, they had viable non-toxic alternatives.
Leifer says medical evidence of the harm lead could do to children developed early on.
Leifer: The studies first began to be published at the dawn of the 20th century and in the late 1920’s the Lead Industries Association was formed to which all of these companies belonged, and that association, among other things, disseminated information to these companies about what the medical and scientific community was saying about the effect of lead on children. And also, there was a lot of emphasis on the development of lead free products. One company in particular that I can think of advertized a lead-free paint and said it was non poisonous because it didn’t contain lead. And in the same catalogue, it was promoting its lead-based paints.
Greenberg: Now, even if it’s true they knew there were problems with the paint, what’s the basis for legal action today. Because that lead-based paint was a legal product until 1978.
Leifer: Well, just because something is a legal product, doesn’t mean you should market, sell it and promote it if you have reason to believe that practice will put people at risk. Now, the thing about lead paint is that it is an element. The lead in the paint is an element and it’s going to remain wherever it is forever until it’s removed. And so paint that was applied in the 20’s, and 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, in houses throughout New England, will remain there. And will continue to present a risk of harm, immediate or future harm depending on the condition of the paint, to children who live there today.
Greenberg: The paint companies say they have no control over whether landlords would maintain their properties and get rid of chipping paint. If the product was legal and the companies didn’t have control afterwards, how can you hold them responsible?
Leifer: If it was wrong of them to promote the use of paint in places that would be accessible to children, they bear some responsibility for the continuing presence of lead. And the fact, that paint, like everything else deteriorates. I’ve never said that they were the only people responsible for the problem of lead poisoning in the United States. But they contributed in a significant way to the problem and I’m hoping that at some point, they will contribute in a significant way to the solution.
Greenberg: Neil Leifer is an attorney who participated in a Rhode Island suit against several paint companies. A jury ruled in the state’s favor but the judge in the case has yet to say what the companies must do to help fix the problem of lead paint. In a victory for the companies, the judge said they will not face punitive damages.
Companies face similar law suits in several states, including New Jersey, Ohio, Missouri and California.
For NHPR News, I’m Jon Greenberg
Promotional Coloring Book Cover, 1929. (Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002)
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From the annual report of the Lead Industries Association, Sep. 1941. (Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002)
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