Lead Hype

400,000 fetuses; indeed, it includes no estimate at all of the number of children supposedly “at risk.”

Through the office of the chairman of the NRC lead-poisoning panel, the NRC press office, and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) staff, I tracked down the man who had come up with these figures. Dr. Richard D. Thomas, a former NAS staffer, told me he’d been given the numbers over the telephone by people he declined to name at the Centers for Disease Control. They had told him the figures were in the CDC document, so he cited it. He suggested I call the CDC about the numbers and the bum reference.

Featured Tags

400,000 fetuses; indeed, it includes no estimate at all of the number of children supposedly “at risk.”

Through the office of the chairman of the NRC lead-poisoning panel, the NRC press office, and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) staff, I tracked down the man who had come up with these figures. Dr. Richard D. Thomas, a former NAS staffer, told me he’d been given the numbers over the telephone by people he declined to name at the Centers for Disease Control. They had told him the figures were in the CDC document, so he cited it. He suggested I call the CDC about the numbers and the bum reference.