Industry’s mantra in response to the government lawsuits is to proclaim that it took “responsible action" upon learning that lead-based paint was dangerous in 1955 by “voluntarily” reducing the lead content in paint, a reference to the American Standards Association (ASA) Standard Z66.1. No one disputes that the toxicity of lead-based paint poses continuing hazards. To set the record straight, this standard:

Came years after industry knew lead-based paint was hazardous:
Although all the lead pigment manufacturers knew of the dangers of lead-based paint since the early 1900s, they concealed the hazards from the public and promoted lead-based paint as safe, actually claiming that it promoted health and sanitation.

Allowed dangerous levels of lead:
The industry standard allowed 10,000 parts per million of lead in paint—25 times the current standard for lead at hazardous waste sites.

Was used by industry to further delay government regulation:
The lead industry used this standard to thwart the adoption of more protective and binding regulations. For example, in New York City, a regulation that would have required lead-based paint to be labeled as poisonous was modified to exclude the word “poisonous” upon the establishment of the ASA subcommittee. Industry persuaded New York, Baltimore, and other cities to accept the one percent standard in place of more protective measures.

Was a grudging concession to market forces:
By 1954, lead-based paints were losing market share to safer, better alternatives (that had long been available and produced by some of these very same companies as far back as the 1920s). The lead industry maintained production, sales, and profits by promoting and marketing the (equally dangerous) use of lead in gasoline.

Exempted exterior paints entirely:
Although the Lead Industries Association acknowledged in 1952 that children could be poisoned by exterior paint and that parents could inadvertently repaint furniture with exterior paint, the industry prolonged the continued production of heavily leaded exterior paints.

Was never enforced:
An additional 250,000 tons of white lead were manufactured as paint pigment in the US after 1955. As a result, more than 10 million houses and apartments built after 1955 are coated with lead-based paint, based on HUD’s recent national survey. As late as 1971, the New York City Health Department found heavily leaded interior paints on paint store shelves.

Even when they belatedly adopted this standard in 1955, these companies continued selling paint with lead in it, at reduced but still harmful levels. They did not stop until the government forced them to by banning lead in residential paint in 1978. Since then, the paint companies have done virtually nothing to prevent children’s exposure to toxic lead dust from paint, or to help remove lead-based paint hazards from children’s homes.

Review several articles pertaining to the history of the lead paint industry, including "Cater to the Children," by Drs. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner