www.charlesjeromeware.com " Here to make a Difference."
Charles Jerome Ware, LLC is a Maryland-based, nationally-respected, landlord lead paint defense law firm. If you are being sued for lead paint claims, call us at (410) 720-6129 or (410) 730-5016. We can help you.
Because of its many pre-1978 built apartments and houses still in existence, its legacy (historical), industrial, commercial, and consumer uses of lead, Baltimore can be said to be the city of lead. Toxic lead is considered to be a public health crisis in the Baltimore metropolitan area because of the numerous cases of lead poisoning, in addition to the traditional big industrial northeast city contact with this metal.
Lead is a malleable, utilitarian, heavy metal (Atomic Number 82) that does not dissolve in water, does not decay, does not dissipate, and does not burn. Lead (Pb) lasts, and lasts, and lasts. When inhaled or ingested into the human body, lead stays in the body in some form and some place.
Because of its traditional usefulness, lead has been mined and used by civilizations for over 6,000 years (since about 4,000 B.C.). Ingestion and inhalation of toxic lead has, thus, been around equally as long, causing harm to humans.
Despite the fact that lead is virtually everywhere in the industrial world --- including the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the products we consume, etc. --- by far the largest number of toxic lead claims and lawsuits in Baltimore every year are filed against landlords who rent pre-1978 built apartments and houses. The key allegations for these claims involve lead paint on or in the rental properties. For residential landlords, Baltimore is truly the city of lead.
When lead paint (lead-based paint) was marketed and sold in the United States prior to 1978, it was a popular, utilitarian, and legal product in great demand because it was among other qualities, washable and durable. It was repeatedly endorsed by the federal government, state and local governments, and specified for use on government buildings until the mid-1970s. Its use peaked in 1922, and by 1940 the use of white lead pigments for interiors of buildings was fading rapidly. Lead-based paint began its use in North America during Colonial times.
Since about 1922, Baltimore has been front and center in monitoring the toxic lead problem. In 1951, Baltimore banned the use of lead pigment in interior paint in Baltimore public housing; the first such restriction on lead paint in the United States. There were intervening developments, and in 1978 the federal government banned all consumer uses of lead paint.
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