UNDERSTANDING BALTIMORE LEAD PAINT LITIGATION : Charles Jerome Ware, LLC, A Maryland Lead Defense Law Firm

www.charlesjeromeware.com        " Here to make a Difference."

Charles Jerome Ware, LLC is a successful Maryland-based, nationally-respected, landlord lead paint poisoning defense law firm.  For an initial courtesy consultation, contact the firm at (410) 720-6129 or (410) 730-5016. We successfully defend landlords.

Lead (Pb) is everywhere in Baltimore : in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in many products we use, and in other items we either ingest or inhale. This is why Baltimore has been declared for many years to be a metropolitan area with toxic lead public health problems.  For some reason, despite the well-known wide-spread notion that lead is everywhere in the area, the brunt of toxic lead claims and litigation has for several years been brought against residential landlords whose rental properties were built before 1978 and at some point
contained substantial amounts of lead paint.

There are thousands of pre-1978 built apartments and houses in the Baltimore area. Therein lies the essential problem for Baltimore landlords.

Lead (Pb) is a malleable, utilitarian (useful), "heavy" metal (Atomic Number 82) that does not really decay, nor dissolve in water, nor dissipate, nor burn. Lead lasts, and lasts, and lasts --- even when ingested or inhaled into the human body. In fact, it is harmful to the human body.

Lead has been mined and used plentifully by civilizations for over 6,000 years --- since about 4,000 B.C.; starting as early as the Hebrews, Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, etc., and continuing up to current times.

Use of lead paint (initially, white lead) began in the Baltimore area during Colonial times. White lead use ultimately peaked in the United States in 1922.When lead paint was marketed and sold before 1978 in America, it was a popular legal in great demand because it was, among other things, washable and durable. Lead paint was repeatedly endorsed by the U.S., state, and local governments and specified for use on government buildings until the mid-1970s.

Because of its proven harmfulness to humans when inhaled or ingested, in 1951 Baltimore City banned the use of lead pigment in interior paint in Baltimore City public housing. This was the first such restriction on lead paint in the United States.

In 1955, the paint industry, working with public health officials and organizations and officials, adopted a national standard to prohibit, in effect, the use of lead pigments in interior residential paints.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, the use of exterior lead paint declined significantly, and ended by the early 1970s.

In 1971, the federal Lead Poisoning Prevention Act was passed.

In 1978, the federal government banned consumer uses of lead paint via the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Since the early 1990s, lead paint poisoning claims and litigation against landlords have been prolific in Baltimore City.