Institute Sued Over Lead-Poisoning Study

A lawsuit accuses a Baltimore medical institute of exposing children to lead poisoning in the 1990s.

Written byJef Akst

| 2 min read

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The Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, is facing a class-action lawsuit accusing it of knowingly exposing more than 100 young black children to lead poisoning in the 1990s during the course of a scientific study on lead abatement measures in homes with lead paint.

The children, aged 1 to 5 years, were living in supposedly “lead-safe” housing in poor neighborhoods of Baltimore, but according to the lawsuit were actually selected by the institute because of lingering lead dust problems. “What they would do was to improve the lead hazard from what it was but not improve it to code,” Thomas F. Yost Jr., one of the lawyers who filed the suit, told The New York Times. Though Kennedy Krieger employees periodically measured the lead ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
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Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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