Electronics recycler over-exposes workers to lead, fined more than $56K

The company fails to monitor exposure require personal protective equipment

Self-Promotion Watch: Lead and Crime in Postwar America

Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

I'm usually a little reticent about tooting my own horn, but since I've always had a lot of respect for James Surowiecki, I was sort of chuffed to see this in his year-end roundup of his favorite business stories: Kevin Drum’s brilliant Mother Jones piece, “America’s Real Criminal Element: Lead,” explores the relationship between lead in the environment and crime (and a host of other social ills). It is not, I guess, a classic business story. But it’s a rigorous and enormously enlightening look at how businesses’ and regulators’ choices—in this case, the decision to keep lead in gasoline and paint—end up shaping society in ways that few expect. I’m not entirely sure that lead explains the entire drop in crime we’ve seen in cities across America. But Drum has certainly convinced me that getting lead out of the environment is one of the best, and most cost-effective, social interventions that regulators can make. Thanks, James! More here for those who want to dive into some of the other reaction to the lead-crime story, as well as a few items that got left on the cutting room floor.

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Lead Paint - Industry Has Yet to Meet Its Responsibility

Bill Moyers recently interviewed Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, public health historians and authors of several books, including Lead Wars, about the politics of toxic substances. 

"And the industry said over 50 years ago that this was an insoluble problem, it was a problem of, caused by slums, it was a problem caused by who they called uneducable parents. And so that they washed their hands of the problem and they have still washed their hands of the problem. Parents have played, excuse me, paid the cost of lead poisoning. Landlords have even paid the cost of lead poisoning. The government has paid the cost of lead poisoning. The industry has not paid to get that lead off the walls so future generations of children can be protected." Gerald Markowitz

Click here to see the entire video recording of the program: "Toxic Disinformation" aired on PBS May 17, 2013.

California Public Entity Lead Paint Lawsuit Trial Starts (Bloomberg 7.15.13)