Manufacturers of paint, automobiles, gasoline and countless other products used lead as an additive to improve the quality of the items they produced. While lead additives did provide many benefits, however, they created serious lead poisoning problems for the people exposed to them.
In the 1970s, the U.S. federal government and various states started to ban the use of lead in products. In 1978, the federal government issued an all-out ban on lead-based paints, which used to be common in residential homes. The problem is, many older homes still contain lead-based paint in their walls today.
Why is lead so dangerous?
Lead can enter your body when you touch lead objects and/or objects that have lead dust on them. Children, for example, might eat lead-contaminated paint chips or lead-contaminated soil. Lead in the air can also enter the body when we breathe. Lead contamination is also common when lead dust enters the air during home renovations.
Young children and babies are the most likely to put their hands in their mouths after touching different objects, so they tend to be the most at risk of getting lead contamination. Also, their young bodies are growing and therefore more sensitive to the ill-effects of lead contamination.
Here are a few problems related to lead contamination in children:
- Leaning problems and behavioral issues
- Delayed development
- Hearing issues
- Headaches
- Brain damage
- Nervous system damage
Here are a few lead contamination problems in adults:
- Pregnancy complications
- High blood pressure
- Nervous disorders
- Concentration and memory problems
- Joint and muscle issues
- Reproductive problems for men and women
Were your family members injured by lead poisoning?
If you are renting a property and the owner of the property failed to warn you about lead in the walls, the property owner has likely committed negligence. Furthermore, if you purchased a property and the seller of the property failed to warn you about lead in the home, your property owner likely committed negligence. As such, any resulting injuries from lead contamination in these situations could be the fault of the landlord or seller of the property, meaning that you might have a viable claim for lead contamination injuries.