01:00 AM EST on Saturday, March 11, 2006

Your March 6 editorial on the judgment against lead-paint companies, "Blaming the wrong people," is wrong.

The three companies -- Sherwin Williams, NL industries, and Millennium Holdings -- that were found guilty of causing a "public nuisance" produced the great majority (well over 80 percent) of the lead pigment that went into lead paint. Therefore, the estimated 240,000 Rhode Island homes that have lead paint could not have been covered with lead paint without those companies' lead pigment.

As witnesses at the trial amply documented, the lead paint/pigment industry was well aware for decades that its product was poisoning and killing many children.

Of course landlords have a responsibility to keep their properties safe for their tenants (and many do so), but the parties that produced the problem in the first place -- Sherwin Williams and the other manufacturers -- also bear much responsibility, and have yet to do so.

RICHARD RABIN

Arlington, Mass.

The writer is an activist against child lead poisoning (www.sueleadindustry.homestead.com).