Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaii - West Oahu: Honolulu Record Digitization Project

Honolulu Record, Volume 10 No. 7, Thursday, September 12, 1957 p. 8

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Poison of Poverty

When the American ambassador to Italy contracted lead poisoning, it was front page news. The beautiful Mrs. Clare Boothe Luce suffered from a strange poisoning, finally discovered to be caused by flaking plaster from the ceiling of her bedroom in the ancient Italian palace which is the Ambassadorial residence.

Lead poisoning in a palace may be news, but it's not news when it happens in the slums of our cities. Our poorest citizens often live in inferior houses and little effort is made to keep them in repair. The paint used on old houses was usually lead paint, and the old plaster is likely to be thoroughly impregnated with lead after having been painted over many times. It's not at all uncommon to find plaster falling from ceilings and walls and paint flaking from the woodwork. And small children may play with the crumbly stuff and even try out the flavor.

Lead poisoning is one of the most terrible hazards of the poor. The most common and alarming symptoms are vomiting, abdominal cramps, convulsions, and stupor. If a child survives the early stages, anemia and mental retardation may follow.

Doctors now have a remarkably effective de-leading agent called "EDTA" which can carry the lead out of the system through the urinary tract. But it must be used quickly, before the brain has become irreversibly involved. And after recovery, what? Does the child go back to the same circumstances where he may again fall victim to lead poisoning?

This is a community problem that can only be solved by facing the facts about our slums—whether in big cities or small towns. Citizens who care can push for progress on decent low-rent housing, can at the very least demand enforcement of housing regulations.

p /> I do not say that at odd hours a patient must be given the regular hot dinner or supper. Few people would expect this.
 
But what is so complicated about opening and heating a can of soup, making some toast, or preparing instant coffee or tea? Why cannot a night nurse do these simple things after the kitchen to closed? Is it just too much trouble?

It is only common humanity to feed the hungry. If our hospitals are too big, too complex, too impersonal to do these small kindnesses for the sick, something is very wrong.