[tinco]

"Lead paint, tobacco, bloodletting [..] we ought to remember that the same sentence has been said, earnestly and confidently, about things that absolutely were hazardous."

I've heard this argument before but it sounds really wrong to me. Did anyone ever really say lead paint is absolutely safe? For all of these things I feel people just didn't think about it. They never thought 'hmm maybe if we put poisonous metal in paint (we knew lead was poisonous) it could go into the air and affect the brain development of our children' they just went to a hardware store and bought the paint that was good and cheap, assuming that since everyone else bought it, it would be good. Same for tobacco.

[Alex3917]

It was already known that lead was poisonous when leaded gas was invented, but there was a huge amount of lobbying saying it was safe by the car industry.