LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010709/tCB00V2039.html

Monday, July 9, 2001

NAACP Plans to Sue Lead Paint Industry

AP Minority Issues Writer

    NEW ORLEANS--NAACP president Kweisi Mfume says the civil rights
organization is preparing to sue the lead paint industry in an effort to
hold it accountable for health problems linked to lead in paint.
    Mfume, who unveiled the planned lawsuit Sunday, said more details
would be released later this week during the 92nd annual convention of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
    "For us it's a civil rights issue because you ought to have every
reasonable expectation that as an American, you have the right to grow up
in an environmentally safe situation, where you're not put at risk," Mfume
said.
    Lead-based paint was widely used in homes until it was banned in
1978. At high levels, lead can cause kidney damage, seizures, coma and
death. Children are most commonly exposed to lead by inhaling lead-paint
dust or eating paint flakes.
    "This affects everybody," Mfume said. "This is not a black problem in
the ghetto or in white suburbia. It's everywhere these houses exist."
    During the group's convention, which runs through Thursday, NAACP
leaders are expected to tackle issues of criminal justice, election reform
and diversity on television.
    Earlier Sunday, NAACP board chairman Julian Bond lashed out at
President Bush's record in his first months in office, criticizing some of
his Cabinet choices and denouncing his faith-based initiative.
    Bush has "appeased the wretched appetites of the extreme right wing,
and he picked Cabinet officials whose devotion to the Confederacy is
nearly canine in its uncritical affection," Bond said.
    About 4,500 gathered to hear Bond's speech, applauding and
occasionally laughing at some of his criticisms of Bush.
    "I'm hopeful maybe this will rally us," said Kay Porter of Garland,
Texas. In 2004, "hopefully we'll have a Democratic president. Anyone other
than Bush."
    Bond especially assailed the civil rights records of Interior
Secretary Gale Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, and Attorney
General John Ashcroft.
    "The president who promised to unite, not divide, chose as a
secretary of the interior a woman who opposed racially equitable
scholarships ... a woman who refused to defend her state's support of a
business fairness program," Bond said.
    And for the nation's top law enforcement officer, Bond said Bush
chose "a man who doesn't believe in many of the civil rights laws he's
sworn to enforce -affirmative action, racial profiling, hate crimes,
voting rights."
    A Bush spokesman defended the president's choices.
    "The president is proud of his record and the record of his Cabinet,"
said spokesman Jimmy Orr. "The president's Cabinet and staff are made up
of accomplished and diverse individuals."
    The administration's tax cut and its faith-based initiative, which
would allow government funds to flow to churches, mosques and synagogues

that seek to ease social woes, were also targets of criticism.
    Bush has asserted that church-based groups receiving government funds
should be able to refuse employment to people outside their religion.
Critics, including Bond, contend this could amount to government-funded
discrimination.
    The plan "threatens to erase 60 years of civil rights protections,"
Bond said. "There are many, many ways to strengthen religiously based
organizations that work in our communities without gutting important civil
rights."
    Bond said the Bush administration's tax cut "placed funding for
important programs in a lockbox, raiding the treasury for a decade,
closing the door on government aid for children, for schools, for the
poor."
    Orr said Bush's "commitment to equal opportunity and equal justice is
demonstrated with sweeping public school reform that fights to leave no
child behind, proven help for the nation's poor with the faith-based and
community initiative and his call for an end to racial profiling."
    Bush was invited to address the gathering but was unable to because
of a scheduling conflict, NAACP officials said. Instead, he sent a
videotaped greeting that will be played during the convention.
   
- - -
    On the Net:
    NAACP: http://www.naacp.org
   
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

I'm sorry, this has what to do with a "civil rights" organization...?

Far be it from me to tell these "elites" what to do, but wouldn't their efforts be better spent helping all the poor souls in Africa?  Those poor souls are experiencing real suffering.[>:/]

Next they can sue oil manufacturers for putting lead in gas for the past 80 years.

It would be nice to see some clean neighborhood program for inner-cities instead.

Kweisi's just still upset because his momma didn't stop him from eating paint chips when he was a baby.
At least now we know what his problem is.

Heres a tip I've picked up in being a parent 'watch your kids and dont let them eat the paint chips.

[i]"banned since 1978"[/i]

Okay, so who the hell are they going to sue?  I'd bet a lot of those firms are out of business.  Plus, many of the folks that ran them 23 years ago are either deceased or at an advanced age.

Good Lord.  The stupidity never ends.

Mike

as i have said many other times, i'm not as bright as the rest of the men here BUT, let me ask this question. why isn't the NAACP going after the sub par school and school systems that DO NOT provide a good education? i truly think more could be accomplished if that problem was resolved first.

but what do i know....

WE tried to sue GOD once........HIS lawyer would never return our calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!![smoke]

Please show me where it says anything in the constitution or the bill of rights about the environment. Now if lead paint leads one to join the NAACP and act like a raging savage jackass then he might have a point.

Personally I LIKE the taste of lead paint.. I sprinkle 'em with a dash of DDT...er...I don't feel so good...see ya later.... [xx(]

Ahhhhhhhhh so much I could say......
So little time with the new screen name....