Case Study: Lead Smelter
One of Dallas' largest public housing projects sat in a low-income neighborhood directly across the street from a secondary lead smelter. For many years the smelter converted used automotive batteries into lead components for resale. By all accounts, particulate emissions from the factory smokestacks literally blanketed the surrounding community with lead-bearing soot.
Baron & Budd represented more than 200 families in a lawsuit that eventually closed the lead smelter and paid sizable confidential settlements to court-supervised trusts for 445 children affected by lead poisoning.
To prove the case, Baron & Budd initiated a full-scale environmental study of the neighborhood using computer modeling to establish the level of airborne and soil-based lead exposure to each child over several years. An epidemiological study proved actual developmental damage. Under the direction of Baron & Budd lawyers and consultants, children in the housing projects also received a battery of IQ tests, with the results matched against a like number of children in a similar housing project in a different part of Dallas. The 24-point median IQ difference between the groups was key evidence for winning the case.
Although the neurological damage to these children is irreversible, the funds recovered in the settlement has enabled them to move into adulthood with medical, rehabilitative, and vocational assistance. Closing the lead smelter and requiring the company to fund a community soil clean-up project also prevents future damage to other neighborhood children.
Results Depend on the Facts of Each Case.
