Old Paint: A Medical History of Childhood Lead-Paint Poisoning in the United States to 1980 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780813529875)

In the early twentieth century lead had many domestic uses: in solder for cans, as a gasoline additive to prevent "knocking" in engines, in water pipes, and, most prominently, in interior paint prized for its durability and ability to hold color. Far from being the toxic hazard we recognize today, lead was a valuable commodity. However, by the end of the century, lead had largely disappeared from our environment as physicians discovered the threat it posed to children's health and mental development.

Old Paint documents the history of lead-paint poisoning in the United States and the evolving responses of public health officials and the lead-paint industry to this hazard up to 1980, by which time lead had been banned from gasoline and paint. Peter C. English traces lead poisoning from a rare, but acute problem confined to a small group of children to the discovery by the end of the 1940s of the dangers of the crumbling lead-painted interiors of inner-city dwellings. He draws on a wide range of primary materials not only to illuminate our understanding of how this health hazard changed over time, but also to explore how diseases are constructed and evolve.

Author: Peter C. English
ISBN-10: 0813529875
ISBN-13: 9780813529875
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/01/2001
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.18lbs
Size: 9.54h x 6.46w x 0.92d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2002 pg. 1452
Scitech Book News 12/01/2001 pg. 95