In 1991, the Public Health Service articulated a vision for primary prevention in Strategic Plan for the Elimination of Childhood Lead Poisoning, a departure from previous federal policy focused on finding and treating lead-poisoned children. This publication detailed a 15-year strategy for primary prevention and offered a cost-benefit analysis to demonstrate the monetized benefits of this approach. A strong national effort to follow this strategy developed but was eventually abandoned. Needlman examines the reasons for this failure, presenting these groups as the primary actors in “derailing the plan”: lead industry, real estate interests, insurance interests, private pediatricians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, federal agencies and a public interest group supposedly dedicated to eliminating lead poisoning.
Cite as
Anonymous, ""Childhood Lead Poisoning: The Promise and Abandonment of Primary Prevention"", contributed by Margaux Fisher, Disaster STS Network, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 23 February 2023, accessed 11 December 2024. http://465538.bc062.asia/content/childhood-lead-poisoning-promise-and-abandonment-primary-prevention
Critical Commentary
In 1991, the Public Health Service articulated a vision for primary prevention in Strategic Plan for the Elimination of Childhood Lead Poisoning, a departure from previous federal policy focused on finding and treating lead-poisoned children. This publication detailed a 15-year strategy for primary prevention and offered a cost-benefit analysis to demonstrate the monetized benefits of this approach. A strong national effort to follow this strategy developed but was eventually abandoned. Needlman examines the reasons for this failure, presenting these groups as the primary actors in “derailing the plan”: lead industry, real estate interests, insurance interests, private pediatricians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, federal agencies and a public interest group supposedly dedicated to eliminating lead poisoning.