Lead paint creates serious health risks, but this ad is from 1939, when lead in paint was normal. Many countries phased in bans starting in the 1970s or 80s, mandating lower and lower concentrations over time, or restricting permissible uses, or both. Some countries still allow unrestricted use of lead paint in 2026.
Lead exposure is very bad for anyone, especially children. Unlike certain other toxins, there’s no known safe level of exposure, and it bioaccumulates. There are many other routes into the body besides paint, and some are associated with increased crime rates and intellectual deficits in children.
This is where I jump in with the controversial opinion that…
DDT should not be totally banned.
By the 1970/80s, we all grew up thinking that bed bugs were a myth — olden times lore like “sleep tight” referring to tightening the ropes if your bed… sleep tight and don’t let them bedbugs bite!
Mattresses used to be treated with it. No bedbugs.
Sure, fogging the backyard before a bbq was not good practice. Definitely municipal spraying programs were a terrible idea
But, mattresses and couches? That’s a good use case. Put a $100 deposit on every mattress sold, and they will all be returned for the refund, one way or another.
The total elimination of a permanent, safe (for humans) insecticide that prevents that terrible pest was almost as bad an idea as selling it unregulated in the lo Woolworth’s
DDT was banned based on bullshit. In 1962, A US naturalist , Rachel Carson, wrote a book claiming DDT was killing bird populations, but her data was all fake. As a result of banning DDT, millions of people subsequently died of malaria in Southern hemisphere, which conveniently led to decades of economic underdevelopment in those regions, run by US mega agriculture. Governments insist to this day this is all a myth and the UN keeps promoting DDT bans. The “Scientific” studies showing effects on bird eggs and carcinogenesis all used ridiculous levels never practically used. (see also BPA, same shit science).
They still use DDT as malaria control in some regions. When malaria becomes common in the US, you will see regulations relaxed.