Table 1.

Milestones in the history of lead.

Year	Event	Reference
6500 B.C.	First evidence of lead mine dates back to this period in Turkey	Bochynska, 2013; Needleman, 1991
3000 B.C.	Chinese used lead to manufacture coins	Schafer, 1956
2000 B.C.	Spanish used lead to manufacture coins Egyptians used lead as pigment in cosmetics	Walter et al., 1999; Woolley, 1984
500 B.C.-300 A.D.	Romans used lead in cookware, food, and other applications	Needleman, 1991
200 B.C.	Nicander, a Greek physician-poet, offered an early description of lead poisoning	Needleman, 2009
<100 A.D.	Dioscorides, the physician to the Roman Emperor Nero, asserted that “lead makes the mind give way,” providing one of the first direct medical diagnoses of lead poisoning	Needleman, 1991; Woolley, 1984
1621	Lead first mined and smelted in the U.S. for production of bullets	Swiggett, 1917
1804	First white lead factory in the U.S.	Kessler, 2014
1891	National Lead Company is incorporated	Kessler, 2014
1897	Jefferis Turner, Queensland Australia pediatrician, diagnosed lead poisoning in children	Rosner et al., 2005
1904	Lockhart Gibson, American clinician, was attributed with the first scientific studies linking lead-based paint to neurotoxicity in children	Rosner et al., 2005; Gibson, 1904.
1909	France, Belgium, and Austria were among the first countries to ban or restrict white lead from interior paint	Markowitz & Rosner, 2000
1918	Lead Industries Association promoted lead for use in children's products with a “Cater to the Children” campaign featuring the Dutch Boy	Markowitz & Rosner, 2000; 2003
1921	Edward Cornish, president of the Lead Industries Association, acknowleded in a letter to Harvard that “lead is a poison”	Markowitz & Rosner, 2000
1922	League of Nations banned white-lead interior paint and limited lead in exterior paint. Also they stated women and children under 16 years of age should not be employed where white lead is manufactured; the U.S. declined to adopt the ban.	Gilberts & Weiss, 2006; Markowitz & Rosner, 2003
1922	Thomas Midgley Jr., first developed tetraethyl lead gasoline as an anti-knock compound	Kitman, 2000
1922	William Mansfield Clark of the Public Health Service warns against use of tetraethyl, calling it a “serious menace to the public health”	Kitman, 2000; Nriagu, 1990
1923	13 to 15 deaths and over 300 men suffered mental health issues in three GM automobile plants due to working with tetraethyl lead	Needleman, 1991
1936	U.S. increased production of leaded gasoline; 90% of gasoline sold in the U.S. contained tetraethyl lead	Nriagu, 1990
1955	Voluntary standard adopted to limit lead in paint to 1% by weight in the U.S.	Markowitz & Rosner, 2000
1971	Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act passed to begin eliminating lead in paint in the U.S.	MMWR, 2012 www.hud.gov/sites/documents/20258_legislativehistory.pdf
1973	Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calls for a phasing out of lead in gasoline	EPA (1996) https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/epa-takes-final-step-phaseout-leaded-gasoline.html
1976	Toxic Substances Control Act enacted by EPA	EPA(n.d.) https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-toxic-substances-control-act.
1978	Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) enacted in the U.S. to ban white lead paint from indoor, residential use over 50 years after the ban is recommended by the League of Nations	MMWR, 2012 www.hud.gov/sites/documents/20258_legislativehistory.pdf
1986	Leaded material banned from the installation and repair of public water systems in both residential and non-residential facilities by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) [Proposition 65]	EPA(n.d.) www.epa.gov/dwstandardsregulations/use-lead-free-pipes-fittings-fixtures-solder- and-flux-drinking-water
1992	Title X of the Housing and Community Development Act enacted—Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act	MMWR, 2012 www.hud.gov/sites/documents/20258_legislativehistory.pdf
1994	Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-III) study showed that U.S. blood lead levels declined by 78% from 1976–1991	MMWR, 1994 www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00032080.htm
1995	U.S. banned use of lead in sealing canned foods	MMWR, 2012
1996	Clean Air Act banned sale of leaded fuel for use in on-road vehicles in a final step to phaseout tetraethyl from gasoline	EPA, 1996
1996	World Bank called for a worldwide phaseout of leaded gasoline and called lead one of the most serious health threats to large populations	Lovei, M., 1996
1999	U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) enacted Lead-Safe Housing Rule	Federal Register, 2001
2001	Lead dust and soil hazard standards are set	Federal Register, 2001
2000	42 countries phased out lead from petrol	Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2002
2007	CPSC recalled 2 million toy units due to excessive levels of lead in paint and Mattel and Fisher Price were fined $23 million for violations	CPSC, 2009
2010	Healthy People 2020—Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) proposed health objectives to be achieved by the reduction of lead	CDC(n.d.) www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/publications/10_217029A_Walker_HealthyHomesBooklet_10131_Oupdated_WithCovers.pdf
2011	CPSC decreased the limit of lead by weight allowed in a product marketed toward children from 600 parts per million to 300 parts per million (ppm) in 2009 and to 100 ppm in 2011	CPSIA, 2012
2011	Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act lowered lead content in pipes and plumbing fixtures from 8% to .25% by weight	HUD, 2014
2014	Paint companies in California ordered to pay $1.15 billion for selling leaded paint against regulations	Kessler, 2014
2014	Flint Michigan's water system was contaminated by improperly treated water that caused leaching of lead from old plumbing. Measurements of lead in water were as high as 13,200 ppb. The level of concern set by the Environmental Protection Agency is 15 ppb	DeWitt, 2017 EPA, 2016 Pell & Schneyer, 2016 Torrice, 2016