Nowadays, we are celebrating the life of Henrietta Lacks and decrying the circumstances that make her noteworthy. Cells from her body were used without her consent before consent was required in clinical research.
Although the federal government now requires informed consent through institutions’ review boards, researchers and institutions do not always obey. Such was the case in Baltimore in the 1990s, long after the federal government established procedures and requirements for protecting human subjects.
The Krieger Institute, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins, conducted a study that I consider worse than the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment. I think this experiment is worse than Tuskegee because it caused children to become lead poisoned.
Erroneously many people think the Tuskegee experiment gave poor Black men Syphilis. No, they did not cause the men to catch Syphilis; however, they did not treat the men for the disease, even after a cure was found. They just continued to study the course of the disease without treatment.
The Baltimore Lead Paint Study at the Krieger Institute went a step further than the Tuskegee study. Krieger placed poor Black families with children into apartments with known lead levels, thus giving many of the children lead poisoning.
They classified the apartments into five categories (1 – 5) according to the amount of lead in the units and then studied the clinical results in the children.
Lead poisoning is a serious but preventable childhood disease caused by exposure to lead found primarily in paint, soil, and household dust. Children encounter these sources of lead during regular indoor and outdoor play. Lead is especially dangerous to children under seven years of age because this is an important time in the development of their neurological system. As a result, lead poisoning can damage a young child’s developing brain, causing learning and behavioral disabilities; lead poisoning is associated with poor school performance and delinquent behavior; and lead poisoning has also been associated with violent behavior.
Since some of the principal sources of lead in the environment are flaking paint from old houses, auto emissions, and industrial sources, inner-city areas have higher rates of child lead poisoning. In addition, African Americans tend to be the primary inner-city dwellers. Consequently, African American children are more at risk for lead poisoning than white children.
Most children with lead poisoning have no immediate symptoms. Symptoms occur later when they are in middle or high school. However, a small proportion of children are poisoned by eating paint chips from the walls of deteriorating inner-city dwellings. These children become ill and usually must be hospitalized. In most instances, however, childhood lead poisoning occurs from an accumulation of low lead levels from household dust without immediate symptoms.
The critical issue with lead poisoning is that there is no cure. The effect of lead on a child’s neurological system is irreversible. This is a significant reason the Baltimore Lead Paint Study’s actions are so terrible.
The Krieger Institute experiment physically harmed several children. Consequently, several parents sued on behalf of their children, and there is also a class action suit. A few cases were resolved with settlements—however, the Krieger Institute battles on, contesting every lawsuit and never admitting they did anything wrong.