Guest guest Posted July 8, 2000 Report Share Posted July 8, 2000 Texas Schools Sue Over Lead Paint HOUSTON (AP) — Administrators for two Houston-area school districts are suing companies that made lead paint, in hopes of recovering the costs of removing the paint. Lawyers for the Houston and Spring Branch school districts say the lawsuits are the nation's first by educators. Similar cases have been filed by the city of St. Louis, the state of Rhode Island and a California county. The school districts argue that paint companies are still responsible for health hazards from lead paint, even if it was applied to walls 30 or 40 years ago, before it was banned. Removing or treating lead paint in the schools is expected to cost millions of dollars. ``If we have applied somebody's product and it has to be removed at exorbitant cost, we don't feel the taxpayers should have to pay for the removal,'' Spring Branch Superintendent Hal Guthrie said. The companies named in the Houston lawsuits include DuPont, Glidden, Sherwin-, Atlantic Richfield and the trade group Lead Industries Association. Alan Wheat, a spokesman for several of the companies, said they stopped putting lead in interior paints in the 1950s and shouldn't be held responsible for lead paint applied long before it was known to be unsafe. ``They've disseminated information and worked with public health officials to make changes,'' Wheat said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 8, 2000 Report Share Posted July 8, 2000 Yeah, they've got the same problems in Providence, RI! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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