Getting the Legal Lead Out?

Wow, a breath of fresh air from someone with a law degree. Certainly the Ohio Bar will look to disbar him after such heresy.

Let's hope we find more of this kind of pragmatic thinking in politics. OK, it's my fantasy, but let me dream anyways.

Do I see signs of people more interested in the intention of the law instead of the letter of the law? It is high time that judges were required to interpret the meaning rather than the letter. This would probably put a number of lawyers out of business but to the common good and would mean that we would see more justice.

The paint industry is being blamed for historical factors - for many years lead pigments were used to the advantage of all and were chosen and specified by government departments and other purchasers. It is one thing to try to apply hindsight having found out the hard way that the advantages were not compensated for. Modern paint makers, once made aware of the problem, took action and the use of these products was discontinue. Were the paintmakers alone to blame? The users who specified the materials were part of the action! They probably new as little about lead toxicity as the paint makers.

I think that too many people are, because of the past, laying blame on paint and have stopped looking for the real reason. It would be interesting to know how many tons of lead went into petrol since the internal combustion engine came into use and where it is all to be found now. No use blaming the fuel industry or the motor industry - hindsight again. Let us devote out time effort and expense to finding where all the lead is and getting it out of the food chain!

On the basis of hindsight it must be emphasised that modern analytical chemistry has made exponential strides in finding toxic substances - how would they fare nowadays using the same tools as were in use fifty years ago.