Johns Hopkins and Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Toxicity of Lead in Children Research Study

In 1995, Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) began enrolling children between the ages of 1 to 3 into the Toxicity of Lead in Children Study (TLC Study). KKI promised lead-safe housing to participants in the research experiment. But KKI performed low cost experimental scraping and vacuuming only where children were to reside. KKI did not make their homes lead safe and the children were exposed to lead based paint chips and dust.

The TLC Study was a three year study. KKI went back into homes to take laboratory samples to measure how much lead was still in the dust in the homes. During the years of collecting hazardous lead dust samples from families in the TLC Study, KKI did not tell the families about the danger. KKI also measured the children’s blood lead levels and did not always tell the families about the results. Years later KKI published two studies finding their experimental  “cleaning “ was not enough to keep children safe. Many children were lead poisoned to enable researchers to test their theory.

The TLC Study was approved as ethical by a Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB had a direct responsibility to protect the children in the research experiment. The members of the IRB were not qualified to understand the risks of the study or to protect the children from needless risk of lead poisoning. KKI had most of its experiments approved by the Johns Hopkins IRB. Many of the researchers conducting the TLC Study were also employees of Johns Hopkins.

For More Information

Read the New York Times article about the class-action lawsuit here. “Racial Bias Seen in Study of Lead Dust & Children”

Read the Baltimore Sun article : “Reforms Aim to Make Medical Research Safer for its Subjects”

Read the Baltimore Sun article: “Maryland to Require Lead Tests for all Children at Age 1 and 2”