The Lead Wars

Short Synopsis

A television, Internet and DVD public health outreach tool about an environmental justice issue that remains the largest environmental health problem for children in the U.S. today: lead paint poison. With the tobacco settlement as a precedent, the lead industry today faces public accountability as it never has before.   

Description/Treatment

A grassroots war is intensifying that affects the lives of millions of people and in which potentially billions of dollars are at stake.

The war is over an insidiously dangerous product that continues to poison children such as Sammy Colón in Providence and several hundred thousand more American children like him every year, as well as millions more overseas: lead paint. 

On one side of the conflict are an increasing number of parents, doctors, housing activists, teachers and public officials who have organized to take action.They picket and disrupt corporate operations, they lobby for legislation, theyeducate the public, they sue landlords and corporations.  On the other side are corporations, landlords and their lobbyists.

While childhood lead poisoning has declined since cars stopped spewing leaded exhaust, and lead paint was legally banned in 1978, this festering nightmare is today’s largest environmental health problem for children.  The poison damages a child’s brain forever. It creates learning disabilities, slows growth, reduces energy, causes behavior problems. It disrupts families, schools and communities. It contributes to the prison population. And it could have been — and most of the harm still can be — prevented at a cost running into billions of dollars. But activists argue that if prevention measures are not taken, the human costs to families and society will be even greater.

There are 24 million American homes and millions more homes around the world that are still coated with lead based paint. Most are in neighborhoods where economically deprived families live.  Thousands of “green” jobs could be created to safely remove and replace it with the lead free kind. But landlords don’t want to pay for it, poor people can’t afford to or are not aware of the problem, and industry resists all efforts to force them to pay to correct the problem their opponents say industry created.

We are producing two DVD documentaries: a 20-25 minute version for use by grassroots groups that focus on the lead paint poison issue in various parts of the U.S., initially with Healthy Homes Collaborative of California (HHC) which enthusiastically endorses the project and plans to use the DVD in its outreach activities. HHC is an association of community based organizations committed to eliminating environmental health threats in homes and communities. The Boston based Lead Action Collaborative also plans to use the DVD for its outreach activities. The second DVD is a one-hour version for TV and higher education from which the shorter DVD will be created.  Both DVDs will interweave victims and their families, medical experts, activists and their activism, preventive measures, archival materials, researchers, school and law enforcement officials — and corporate defenders. 

There is incontrovertible evidence that lead poisoning permanently damages early development of the brain. Serious long-term health and societal effects have been scientifically documented, including lower IQ, hyperactivity and poor school performance. Researchers have documented thousands of prisoners in the U.S. who were lead poisoned as young children, a condition that contributed to their criminal behavior.

There also is incontrovertible evidence that producers of lead and lead paint were well aware that their product was severely poisoning and killing large numbers of young children at least since the 1920s.  The documentary will include that history and current and recent organized efforts to hold the industry responsible for its actions.

At greatest risk are children of poor families living in substandard housing built before 1978. They tend to be African American or of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. An estimated 24 million U.S. housing units have significant lead-based paint hazards.

In the poorest of neighborhoods few agencies address the on-going problem of lead poisoning.  As public health advocates note, the result is that society is condemning future generations into poverty, lower IQs and robbing children of their potential.

While child lead poisoning is a long-acknowledged disease, it is only recently that the media has started to pay attention, focusing primarily on lead tainted toy imports from China. This news is an opportunity for groups concerned with lead paint poison to educate the public about this issue and what can be done about it.

With funding from the Medical Foundation of Boston we produced an 11-minute sample reel, which can be seen here.  

With additional funding we will film in Los Angeles (lead paint poisoned children, their parents, their life at home and in their community, a doctor, a community activist dedicated to remedying the problem), Pittsburgh PA (interviewing an expert), Washington DC (interviewing experts), Rhode Island (to film Liz Colon at home and at work; she is the articulate advocate in our demo reel, whose son was poisoned by lead paint) and other locations where grassroots activists are organized to focus on the problem.  

Editing and post-production for both the one-hour TV and the 20-25 minute outreach versions will then begin, followed by outreach by HHC and the Lead Action Collaborative with the shorter version and submissions to television, festivals, etc. for the 1-hour version. 

Grants can be made and mailed to Public Media, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not for profit, that serves as fiscal administrator for this and other independent media projects: Public Media, Inc., 330 West 42 Street/Suite 2410, New York, NY 10036