POLITICS OF LEAD POISONING IN BALTIMORE & D.C.: By Defense Attorney and Best-Selling Author Charles Ware

www.CharlesJeromeWare.com

Baltimore (and to a lesser degree, Washington, D.C.), like many other urban areas such as Philadelphia, New York and Boston --- across the nation, has an abundance of older housing (50 years-plus) that is lead poisoned.  This unfortunate fact creates a public health crisis in these urban areas.

Lead poisoning in human beings occurs when there is an abnormal absorption of lead into the body, which over a period of time can cause damage to the body's nervous system, brain, liver, and gastrointestinal tract.

Lead poisoning is not a new issue or concern.  Lots of scientific and medical research studies throughout the years offer valid evidence to prove that lead poisoning causes a variety of harmful health effects - including aggressive behavior in children, ADHD, sterility in adults, miscarriages in pregnant women and in extreme cases coma and death.

I.  Some Important Facts about Lead Poisoning

1. Lead exposure can cause harm to anyone who ingests or inhales it. Lead poisoning is especially dangerous to babies, young children and pregnant women as lead poisoning can be passed through the placenta to an unborn child.
2. Even children who seem healthy can have high levels of lead in their bodies. People can get lead poisoning by breathing or swallowing lead dust, by eating soil or paint chips containing lead, by drinking water from leaded pipes or from hand-to-mouth contact (meaning that a person touches something with lead dust and then put hands in or around their mouth).
3. Various studies prove that lead poisoning can cause aggressive and/or violent behavior, ADHD and learning disabilities in children.
4. Removing lead-based paint improperly can increase the danger to families, employees and/or the general public.
5. Recent studies are proving that even the lowest levels of lead poisoning cause harmful health effects to children.

II.  Some Health Problems Caused by Lead Poisoning

1. Damage to the brain and nervous system
2. Behavior and learning problems, such as hyperactivity and lower I.Qs
3. Slowed and/or stunted growth
4. Seizures
5. Hearing problems
6. Headaches
7. Miscarriages
8. Sterility

III.  Actions You Can Take to Protect Your Family/Community from Lead Poisoning

1. If you are a property owner in Baltimore City, test your dwelling to see if lead is present. If it is, take the necessary and proper actions to remove the lead hazard.
2. If you live in Baltimore City and care for children under the age of 6, ask your child's pediatricians to test your child annually for lead poisoning.
3. If you run a childcare and/or daycare center in Baltimore City, test your dwelling to see if lead is present. If it is, take the necessary and proper actions to remove the lead hazard.
4. If you are a church and/or nonprofit that owns property in Baltimore City, test your dwelling to see if lead is present. If it is, take the necessary and proper actions to remove the lead hazard.

[http://www.examiner.com/article/the-politics-of-lead-poisoning-continues-baltimore]

IV.  In the area of lead-based paint poisoning litigation, several recent trends are of great concern to property owners, landlords, and property managers nationwide.

1. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has repeatedly lowered acceptable blood-lead levels to the point where hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of children are now legally classified as "lead poisoned." Many of those newly classified children will go on to become plaintiffs in lead-based paint poisoning lawsuits.
2. Various state health departments have consistently lowered the amount of lead permissible in residential paint to the extent that millions of apartment units nationwide may suddenly be in violation of local ordinances and regulations.
3. Multimillion-dollar verdicts and six-figure settlements are increasingly common in lead-based paint poisoning civil lawsuits. Juries in Baltimore and across the country seem receptive to arguments that children have suffered irreversible neurological impairment as a result of their alleged ingestion of lead paint chips and dust. This alleged impairment - depicted as manifesting itself in loss on intellectual capacity with resultant medical care, loss of earnings, and pain and suffering - if often the basis for exorbitant jury awards rendered against property owners.

V.  These and other significant developments in the burgeoning area of lead-based paint litigation have necessitated this blog. 

Legal practitioners, as well as claims personnel, risk managers, and landlords, must be cognizant of the specific components of a lead poisoning lawsuit.

To treat childhood lead poisoning claims like a typical landlord-tenant action would be naïve and dangerous.  Investigation of these claims must be prompt, and it must address all potential avenue of defense.  Further, investigation must focus on complex medical issues, in addition to multifaceted matters that may affect liability.

There can be no dispute that prolonged and excessive exposure to lead may result in adverse health effects, especially for children.  Studies have shown that, at young ages, elevated blood-lead levels can cause children to experience symptoms ranging from nauseousness to attention deficit disorder to intellectual impairment.

Unlike a broken bone, which can readily be confirmed through an x ray, claims of neurological impairment are often difficult to verify.  It can be even more difficult to contest that a child's alleged problems result from causes other than lead paint exposure.  Given these difficulties, jurors are understandably inclined to render verdicts in favor of young children, who are often depicted as being "intellectually impaired" as the results of their ingestion of lead paint chips or dust.  Indeed, numerous judges and commentators have suggested that in certain circumstances lead poisoning cases are "indefensible".

[Kaminsky, Bottari and Boulhosa, A Complete Guide To Lead Paint Poisoning Litigation, ABA Book Publishing (1998)]

Among attorney and author Charles Jerome Ware's best-selling books are:
(1) The Secret Science of Winning Lotteries, Sweepstakes and Contests;
http://amzn.com/1432793888
(2) Understanding the Law: A Primer;
http://amzn.com/1440111456
(3) The Immigration Paradox: 15 Tips for Winning Immigration Cases;
http://amzn.com/1440171920
(4) Legal Consumer Tips and Secrets: Avoiding Debtors' Prison in the United States; and
http://amzn.com/1462051847
(5) Quince (15) Consejos Para Ganar Casos Del Inmigracion.
http://amzn.com/1462068952

www.CharlesJeromeWare.com ("We fight.  You win.")

Attorney Charles Jerome Ware is renowned and consistently ranked among the best attorneys and legal counsellors in the United States. [GQ Magazine, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Columbia Flier, USA TODAY, The Howard County Sun, The Anniston Star, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX-TV NEWS, WHUR, WHUT, MPT, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, ABA Journal, et al.]