Imagine what would happen if a toxic substance rained down on Rhode Island
and poisoned nearly 3,000 children in a single year. Alarms would go off
at the State House. Community protests would erupt. Hearing rooms would
be packed with anxious parents.
The fact is, year after year, thousands of children are poisoned here
by lead paint wearing off older houses. But there is no groundswell of
outrage. And most people seem unaware that lead is even a problem.
Why?
Maybe because lead is such a dull villain, hiding in paints applied before
many of today's parents were even born.
Some think the state's lukewarm response can be attributed to the victims
-- many are poor minority children in our inner cities with no clout to
make the poisonings stop.
Others muse that it's strictly economics. The poor don't pay enough in
rents for landlords to make their apartments safe.
But the fact is that lead poisons children of all income levels, of every
race, all over Rhode Island.
Beginning today, The Providence Journal examines the young lives of some
of lead paint's victims -- lives dramatically limited and, in one New
Hampshire case, ended by a poison most of their parents were never taught
to fear.
The six-part series will explore how lead poisoning is thwarting brain
development in so many of our young people -- a loss that drains talent
and wealth from our entire community.
