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“The story Rosner and Markowitz tell of generations of children gravely damaged by promiscuous dispersal of lead, and the persistent attempts made to evade responsibility for the harms caused, is both true and shocking. This book will not just educate future environmental and health leaders, it should outrage them.”
RICHARD J. JACKSON, MD, MPH, Professor and Chair, Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
“Can being poor justify differing standards for research or a focus merely on harm reduction and the politically feasible? Markowitz and Rosner make the compelling case that in public health the practical and possible may in the end be immoral and dangerous, and a consequence of the war on science. A necessary read for anyone who cares about public health, the role of government, children, medical experimentation and environmental justice.”
SUSAN M. REVERBY, McLean Professor in the History of Ideas and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Wellesley College
“Lead poisoning remains a tragedy (and scandal) of immense proportions, and the authors utilize new sources—including previously unexamined court records—to tell a story that is as gripping as it is important.”
ROBERT N. PROCTOR, Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University and author of Cancer Wars
“Markowitz and Rosner have majestically woven the key characters and elements of the history of lead poisoning into a captivating narrative that exposes a tremendous and terrifying truth; unless it serves the needs of private enterprise, public health is incapable of controlling the causes of chronic disease and disability. In place of prevention, we have settled for partial solutions. Everyone who has an interest in public health, health policy or history should read this book.”
BRUCE LANPHEAR, MD, MPH, Clinician Scientist, Child & Family Research Institute BC Children’s Hospital and Professor of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC
Lead Wars
CALIFORNIA/MILBANK BOOKS ON HEALTH AND THE PUBLIC
1 The Corporate Practice of Medicine: Competition and Innovation in Health Care, by James C. Robinson
2 Experiencing Politics: A Legislator’s Stories of Government and Health Care, by John E. McDonough
3 Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint, by Lawrence O. Gostin (revised and expanded second edition, 2008)
4 Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader, edited by Lawrence O. Gostin (revised and updated second edition, 2010)
5 Big Doctoring in America: Profiles in Primary Care, by Fitzhugh Mullan, M.D.
6 Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner
7 Death Is That Man Taking Names: Intersections of American Medicine, Law, and Culture, by Robert A. Burt
8 When Walking Fails: Mobility Problems of Adults with Chronic Conditions, by Lisa I. Iezzoni
9 What Price Better Health? Hazards of the Research Imperative, by Daniel Callahan
10 Sick to Death and Not Going to Take It Anymore! Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of Life, by Joanne Lynn
11 The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974: A Political History, by James A. Wooten
12 Evidence-Based Medicine and the Search for a Science of Clinical Care, by Jeanne Daly
13 Disease and Democracy: The Industrialized World Faces AIDS, by Peter Baldwin
14 Medicare Matters: What Geriatric Medicine Can Teach American Health Care, by Christine K. Cassel
15 Are We Ready? Public Health since 9/11, by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz
16 State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America, by James Colgrove
17 Low Income, Social Growth, and Good Health: A History of Twelve Countries, by James C. Riley
18 Searching Eyes: Privacy, the State, and Disease Surveillance in America, by Amy L. Fairchild, Ronald Bayer, and James Colgrove
19 The Health Care Revolution: From Medical Monopoly to Market Competition, by Carl F. Ameringer
20 Real Collaboration: What It Takes for Global Health to Succeed, by Mark L. Rosenberg, Elisabeth S. Hayes, Margaret H. McIntyre, and Nancy Neill
21 House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox, by William H. Foege
22 Inside National Health Reform, by John E. McDonough
23 Pills, Power, and Policy: The Struggle for Drug Reform in Cold War America and Its Consequences, by Dominique A. Tobbell
24 Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America’s Children, by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner
Lead Wars
The Politics of Science and the Fate
of America’s Children
GERALD MARKOWITZ AND DAVID ROSNER
University of California Press
BERKELEYLOS ANGELESLONDON
Milbank Memorial Fund
NEW YORK
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
The Milbank Memorial Fund is an endowed operating foundation that engages in nonpartisan analysis, study, research, and communication on significant issues in health policy. In the Fund’s own publications, in reports, films, or books it publishes with other organizations, and in articles it commissions for publication by other organizations, the Fund endeavors to maintain the highest standards for accuracy and fairness. Statements by individual authors, however, do not necessarily reflect opinions or factual determinations of the Fund. For more information, visit www.milbank.org.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2013 by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Markowitz, Gerald E.
Lead wars : the politics of science and the fate of
America’s children / Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner.
p. cm.(California/Milbank books on health and the public; 24 )
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-27325-2 (cloth : alk. paper) :
eISBN 9780520954953
1. Lead Poisoning—history—United States. 2. Child—United States. 3. Environmental Exposure—United States. 4. History, 20th Century—United States. 5. Politics—United States. 6. Public Health—history—United States.
QV 11 AA12013
363.738/492— dc23
2012042916
Manufactured in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Rolland Enviro100, a 100% post-consumer fiber paper that is FSC certified, deinked, processed chlorine-free, and manufactured with renewable biogas energy. It