The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, caused untold damage, and poor neighborhoods in cities like New York and Baltimore continue to grapple with the severe health consequences of too much lead in their drinking water. It’s a legitimate public health crisis, with no clear solutions.
But we knew to be concerned in the first place thanks to Herbert Needleman, a pediatrician and child psychiatrist who ended up saving thousands of children from the devastation of lead poisoning. As chief resident at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia in the mid-1950s, Needleman saw a young patient who ultimately led him to his groundbreaking research, which proved that inhaling or ingesting even faint traces of the toxic metal could do irreparable harm.
It all began when a desperate mother brought her ill toddler, barely breathing, to the emergency room. The lethargic 3-year-old girl was quickly seen by Needleman, then a strapping 29-year-old built like a football linebacker with thick glasses. He towered over his tiny patient.
Blood tests revealed that the child’s lead levels were well above 60 micrograms per deciliter, which qualified as poisoning. Back in the 1950s, lead was everywhere: in paint, water pipes, food containers, toys and even the air, thanks to its use as an additive in gasoline. But the problem was especially bad in older homes, full of chipped-off layers of lead-based paints. Because the toxic metal tasted sweet, it often proved irresistible to young children.
