Lead-Poisoning Books

"Getting the Lead Out" is an invaluable resource for parents with children who suffer from lead poisoning. It discusses sources of lead exposure, methods for preventing lead poisoning, and evaluation and treatment of lead poisoning. Critically, the book also provides parents with advice on how to cope with lead poisoning and how to protect their families. The text is clear, thorough, and not overly technical.

I work in the area of lead toxicity and found this book to be highly accurate and informative. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly to any friend or colleague who has a loved one with lead poisoning or who wants to learn more about the subject.

"Getting the Lead Out" is an invaluable resource for parents with children who suffer from lead poisoning. It discusses sources of lead exposure, methods for preventing lead poisoning, and evaluation and treatment of lead poisoning. Critically, the book also provides parents with advice on how to cope with lead poisoning and how to protect their families. The text is clear, thorough, and not overly technical.

I work in the area of lead toxicity and found this book to be highly accurate and informative. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly to any friend or colleague who has a loved one with lead poisoning or who wants to learn more about the subject.

I found this a very good book, and I highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in the topic of lead pollution and poisoning.

This is a scholarly book, and Mr. Warren's scholarship is thorough and rigorous. He covers in detail the rise and fall of the leaded paint and leaded gasoline additive industries. However, because these industries and the problems they caused spun out in many different directions, Warren offers interesting and significant insight into many other areas of twentieth century American history: women's history, history of children and pediatric medicine, labor history, public health and medical history, urban history, business and industrial history, the history of science, the history of Progressivism and regulatory reform, among others. I found the accounts of childhood lead poisoning, women with afflicted children mobilizing to fight against lead paint, inner-city communities confronting the problem as an example of environmental racism, and the final battle to remove tetraethyl lead from gasoline particularly compelling. However, Warren's accounts of the work processes and business organization within the lead industry are also fascinating. Warren also handles some potentially very emotional issues with commendable balance.

Saying a book is a "scholarly book" might tend to frighten some people away. Don't let it. While this is a very solid work of scholarship, with lots of meticulous, detailed footnotes and such, it is also a very readable, interesting book accessible to any reader who wants to learn about the serious public health crisis it describes. This is a big story that deserves more attention. This is a good place to learn about it.

The most useful work I have seen on the important topic of lead poisoning prevention policies.

I enjoyed this book - all 13 chapters. It kept my interest throughout and I read it in two sittings. What an awesome concept on guardian angels. I found myself pulled into the story and wondering what would happen next. I liked it.

This book was recommended to me by a local govt. housing worker, and it's EXCELLENT. It will scare you into action, but gives practical advice and lots of information that you just can't seem to find elsewhere. As the author says, while most lead poisoned children come from low-income housing, those with the worst lead poisoning tend to be from middle-income families living in an older home that has been or is being renovated. It's too bad that most kids are never tested for lead.

paint prime

Incisive and believable. I trust this review. Until such time as lead paint is but a relic of the past, this book will serve as a useful guide to the legal process.

When I was sued for causing the lead poisoning of a young urban child with an attractive mother, I had no alternative but to fight on. Mike Boulhosa's book really helped me along. I showed that plaintiff's attorney, who bore an uncanny resemblence to the late great Captain Kangaroo, who was boss!! This book should be considered a self-help guide because by being able to combat lead poisoning claims, I gained the confidence I lacked in everyday life. I now walk with a spring in my step because I can turn to that book as my personal affirmation. Thank you Mike Boulhosa.

Mr. C

This book is a decent review of an emerging toxic tort. It includes checklists, some history, the statutory and regulatory framework and a state-by-state review of the (now dated) caselaw. Pb is spread, not as thinly as we would hope, over the entire US landscape. We ingest, respire, and expire due to the physiological and neurological effects of this dull grey metal in its many forms.

It is a shame that this fine little book does not investigate, nor comment upon, the technical mechanisms of forensic identification of lead contamination.

This element has substantial bioavailability and thereby concomitant morbidity, mortality and teratogenicity.

The nature of Pb in the environment is that there are few ways to avoid some exposure. Absent some massive change in the way we use Pb, store Pb, remediate Pb and protect our children from Pb, this is the next wave of toxic tort litigation.

Pb is an interesting element. It has many, many forms in nature. The most common forms found in the mining process are "pure" lead, lead acetate, lead oxide and lead sulfide. Bioavailability is determined by the state of the element when it is ingested.

An interesting fact about the element is that the various lead ores found in Pb mines have very different and varying proportions of lead isotopes, depending upon the nature of the deposit. Some naturally occurring lead isotopes are radioactive, and decay by emitting an alpha particle (4He nucleus). Alpha particles are positively charged and are ejected at a high velocity. They are much heavier than beta particles (electrons), and given their high velocity, have a much greater ability to penetrate materials. As alpha particles collide they can strip electrons from atoms in the adjoining matrix. Low alpha lead is the "gold" of the grey metal market and is highly sought after by the computer industry (the fewer internal nuclear interactions in a complex circuit, the more reliable it is) at a premium price.

Lead can be tracked back to the mine it came from, if the search is made with diligence and an understanding of the chemistry, ore strata and isotope state of lead. One isotope of lead (204 Pb) is "primordial", or the "low alpha" isotope; it does not result from the decay of transuranic elements. Other isotopes are "radiogenic", being either fairly stable ( 206 Pb, 207 Pb, and 208 Pb) or radioactive and unstable ( 210 Pb, 211 Pb, 212 Pb, and 214 Pb) decay products of Uranium and Thorium isotopes. Isotope ratios and chemical state are the forensic tools of the lead litigator.

If you want to prove up your damages (or defend against them) the source of the contamination must comport well with the bioreserve in the victims. As is the case in most toxic tort litigation causation is usually shown by circumstantial evidence and limited forensic proof (usually provided by a treating physician and a neurological expert). The defenses to the tort are that Pb is ubiquitous in our environment and that primary toxicity does not equate to any one mechanism of delivery. You could argue that the victim does not have Pb poisoning, but even the defense experts will have to admit the presence of the element in the tissues of the victim. For either side in litigation, having a complete analysis of the chemistry and isotope ratios of the contaminated tissue will provide either litigation team with a far higher level of confidence in the result.

As a chronicle of a mother's courageous struggle to help her lead poisoned twins then this was a great read BUT really didn't provide enough information to be a good resource for anyone looking to understand and treat lead poisoned people

Turning Lead Into Gold was a book I couldn't put down! It opened my eyes to lead and other metals that are harmful to us all. Nancy goes into great detail about the harmful effects of toxic metals and what you can do to prevent it. She also goes into how to treat lead poisoning. I bought this book because my son has an elevated lead level but I am recommended it to everyone I know! Because of all the facts in this book about metal poisoning I am getting my whole family tested.

I talk to parents of lead poisoned children everyday as Manager of the Lead Advisory Service Australia and I have only received extremely positive comments from other parents about this book. Some doctors would argue that the book gives false hope to parents because the book details very positive outcomes for children with heavy metal poisoning when they undergo chelation treatment. Interestingly, one of the book's authors, Dr Strauts, apparently does not carry out chelation therapy on children any more - according to one of the parents from Australia who contacted his office in Canada. Also, unfortunately, I was never able to obtain a copy of the protocol for chelation treatment that is mentioned in the book - this would have been useful.
However, despite all the above, I would highly recommend this book and wish someone would write a follow-up, seven years on, outlining similar success stories that are happening today.

For anyone interested in this topic this is an excellent book. I'm a long time instructor for UC Berkeley's Lead program and so very familiar with the regulatory structure that has evolved around the issue of childhood lead poisoning. Mr. English's work has given me much of the meat on these bones and all in all was very readable and appeared to me to be factual as well.

if you ever want to read a book whose sole function is to justify millions of children dying, going into comas and convulsing, this is the book to read. This guys says he's a pediatrician. He should be ashamed of himself.