No evidence supports this astounding claim. Throughout the 1950s, Lead Industry Association official Manfred Bowditch heroically disseminated knowledge about lead paint hazards when used on cribs and toys, and inside dilapidated housing. Baltimore, a main focus of Bowditch's efforts, publicized the risks of paint chips in run-down buildings in 1949. To repeat, the most severely affected children have consumed paint chips. No causal wrongdoing can be proven against paint manufacturers.
Statutes of limitation have in any case long since run.
These suits, like the tobacco and firearm recoupment actions, are thinly disguised shakedowns. In each case the cities hope the threat of massive lawyers' bills will convince the defendants to pay the entire social cost of local government programs, even though no tax law has ever been passed compelling them to do so. But the juries deciding these cases are not elected officials with the mandate to impose taxes, and public taxation is not within the common law's purview. Let's hope that a courageous judge throws out these lawsuits as quickly as paint dries.