Millions of Kids Are Exposed to Lead Because the U.S. Prefers to Protect Landlords

Exposure to lead can cause permanent brain damage, a lower IQ, and other health problems. But without federal regulations, most people don’t know they’re impacted until it’s too late.

Franchon Whiting was tired. It was late morning, and she had just gotten off a night shift, hardly sleeping two hours before she woke up to look after five of her six children, all of whom sleep on beds in the den of their apartment. There were two school-age girls playing with their mother’s phone, and twins who were just over a year old, one hooked to a feeding tube in his playpen because developmental delays made him unable to chew his food. A three-year-old boy snoozed on a battered sofa. Whiting’s sixth child, a teenage girl, was at school….

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