Lead Paint Balloons for the Kids

Testimony in Rhode Island's case against four companies that produced and sold lead-based paint - Atlantic Richfield, Millennium Holdings, NL Industries and Sherwin Williams - detailed how they "continued to use children in advertisements ... years after medical literature and industry documents made clear that lead was a threat to children's health." Columbia University science and public health professor David Rosner said the companies "engaged in a wide promotion of the use of toys and children's furniture" to sell their paint. The campaigns included hand puppets and coloring books from Dutch Boy (now NL Industries); ads promoting Millennium Holdings paint for nurseries and playrooms, "because of the normal wear and tear of activity"; and White Lead Promotion, an extensive joint campaign from NL and Sherwin Williams, that promoted "the use of lead-based paints in schools" and in homes.