Addressing Lead Hazards
By Albert B. Kelly
It’s bad enough having to deal with consequences from decisions people made years ago because they didn’t know any better, but it’s outrageous having to deal with consequences that clearly could have been avoided but weren’t because someone wanted to continue to make money.
Recall that cigarette manufacturers knew as early as the 1940s that smoking often leads to cancer yet they focused exclusively on figuring out how to keep on marketing to adults and teens, while also sowing doubt in people’s minds about the dangers all to protect their profits.
Something similar occurred with the lead industry. This comes to mind because New Jersey passed the “Lead Service Line Replacement Law” requiring municipalities to replace all lead water lines within a decade. Digging deeper on the issue to find out how we got here, I came across an article on the lead industry in The Guardian entitled “Profiting from poison: how the US lead industry knowingly created a water crisis”.
According to the article, it was known as far back as the late 1800s that lead was dangerous and something to be avoided. As America began to build out its infrastructure, lead pipes were banned in certain cities. But as was the case with the tobacco industry, the lead industry was hellbent on making their money, consequences be damned.
Leading the way was the Lead Industries Association which consisted of all the major lead companies. Like today’s lobbyist firms, the Lead Industries Association had their lobbyists and staff people who simultaneously twisted the arms of legislators while also worming their way into municipal water departments across the country convincing local officials to make lead mandatory in their building codes.
The Association sent out promo materials to thousands of water departments around the country. Beyond that, while the scientific community had clearly demonstrated the dangers of lead, especially to children, the Association paid for their own “studies” in order to confuse people and sow doubt about the science- similar to what’s happening today with climate change.
But what really hit close to home for me in the article was an excerpt of a 1938 activities report from the January 1939 Lead Industries Association Board of Directors meeting in which they highlight the fact that their “Plumbing Promotion Program” to amend city and state plumbing codes around the country to require lead was successful in dozens of jurisdictions.
Right there with Philadelphia, Denver, Austin, Texas and some thirty other cities from coast to coast is listed Bridgeton, New Jersey. My eyes scanned down to the page where it read “It must be remembered that adoption of law…is slow work, but once adopted make a relatively permanent requirement of lead.
Not quite. However slowly, we have started the process of replacing lead service lines one at a time. This work will be slow and painstaking as lines are checked and replacements completed. Our Water Department personnel will be communicating with affected property owners as they proceed through each neighborhood.
On another front. lead is also a problem in many of our residential homes courtesy lead-based paint so that if your home was built prior to 1978, of which there are many, you likely have the presence of lead dust particularly involving high-friction areas like windows and doors to name a few.
This is what prompted New Jersey to adopt P.L. 2021, Chapter
182 focused on rental properties which requires municipalities to either
perform, or hire a lead evaluation contractor to perform, lead inspections of
certain rental dwellings built prior to 1978. These inspections of rental units
are to happen every third year or upon tenant turnover where there is no valid
lead-safe certification or lead-free (i.e. lead has been completely remediated)
certification.
The inspection is a two-fold process that involves a visual inspection of the property to ensure there are no obvious hazards, notably chipping and peeling paint. This is followed by dust wipe sampling tests which involves collecting dust samples sending them to an accredited lab for analysis. When a property passes both the visual assessment and dust wipe test a Lead Safe Certificate is issued. This too will be an ongoing process.
The bottom line is that lead exposure impacts children’s intelligence, ability to pay attention, and ultimately their academic achievement. There’s simply no way to know what we’ve lost over the years, but by addressing the issue now, we can shape a brighter future.