Full Description
During the twentieth century, lead poisoning killed thousands of workers and children in the United States. Thousands who survived lead poisoning were left physically crippled or were robbed of mental faculties and years of life. In Brush with Death, social historian Christian Warren offers the first comprehensive history of lead poisoning in the United States. Focusing on lead paint and leaded gasoline, Warren distinguishes three primary modes of exposure-occupational, pediatric, and environmental. This threefold perspective permits a nuanced exploration of the regulatory mechanisms, medical technologies, and epidemiological tools that arose in response to lead poisoning. Today, many children undergo aggressive "deleading" treatments when their blood-lead levels are well below the average blood-lead levels found in urban children in the 1950s. Warren links the repeated redefinition of lead poisoning to changing attitudes toward health, safety, and risk. The same changes that transformed the social construction of lead poisoning also transformed medicine and health care, giving rise to modern environmentalism and fundamentally altered jurisprudence.
Contents
Contents: List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments Introduction - What's Lead in the Bone... Chapter 1: Plumbing the Depths Chapter 2: Childhood Lead Poisoning before 1930 Chapter 3: Toxic Purity: How the United States Became a Nation of White-Leaders Chapter 4: Occupational Lead Poisoning in the Progressive Era Chapter 5: Protecting Workers and Profits in the Lead Industries Chapter 6: Company Doctors on the Job Chapter 7: Introducing Leaded Gasoline Chapter 8: Defining Childhood Lead Poisoning as a Disease of Poverty Chapter 9: Urban Physicians Discover the Silent Epidemic Chapter 10: The Screaming Epidemic Chapter 11: Facing the Consequences of Leaded Gasoline Chapter 12: The Rise and Fall of Universal Childhood Lead Screening Chapter 13: Regulating "Low-Level" Lead Poisoning Appendix - Reports on Lead PoisoningNotes Index
