'Lead helps guard your health': How American companies sold a toxic product

[bananas]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-lead-pipes-20160204-story.html

A brief history of how the American public was sold on toxic lead

http://www.trbimg.com/img-56b3ff74/turbine/la-na-lead-pipes-20160204-001/800/800x450
An ad placed by the National Lead Co. in the April 4, 1928, edition of the Los Angeles Times, features the company's famed "Dutch Boy." The company advertised lead paint as an effective deterrent against the elements. (Los Angeles Times)

Matt Pearce
February 5, 2016

After toxic lead from old pipes started poisoning the drinking water in Flint, Mich., residents were outraged at the environmental regulators who incorrectly treated the water.

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In the 20th century, Rabin and other lead critics say, the lead industry ignored growing suspicions that the element was toxic for children and launched a campaign to ensure that Americans kept buying lead paint for their homes, lead gas for their cars and lead plumbing in their communities.

“Lead helps guard your health,” a National Lead Co. advertisement declared in “National Geographic” in 1923 — a year after the League of Nations suggested banning lead indoor paint because of health concerns.

<snip>

You see similar campaigns for the GMO and nuclear industries.

[tecelote]

1. Cosmos had a great segment on lead throughout history.

http://www.space.com/25579-cosmos-recap-earth-age-lead-poisoning.html

[bananas]

2. That was a good episode. nt

[cprise]

3. Lead is a _chemical_ so its use is _scientific_!

People who are trying to ban lead are anti-science!

[bananas]

4. Stoopid anti-lead enviromentalists can't do math!