• idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    I worked for an insurance company in latent bodily injury claims (asbestos, lead paint, etc), and the symptoms of lead paint poisoning include lowered IQ, reduced emotional control, impaired risk assessment, and increased aggression.

    There was a black man killed by cops for the crime of impoliteness in response to racial profiling several years ago, who had been one of our claimants. I didn’t find a reference to lead paint on the Wikipedia page, so I don’t think it’s public information and I won’t say who, but it’s unfortunately not a unique story.

    Lead paint is nearly exclusively still present in awful apartments rented by slumlords to the poorest people in the US.

    There’s also ambient exposure from leaded gasoline, but that’s not really an ongoing problem anymore (for now, I could see this regime fully legalizing leaded gas again). Even though lead hasn’t been legal in house paint since 1978, shitty landlords just painted over it instead of remediating it, so kids get exposed to sweet tasting paint flakes, as well as the dust released when it flakes off ending up in their homes or in the soil surrounding their buildings.