Editing Lead (section)

=== Modern era ===
[[File:Dutch_boy_collier_white_lead.png|thumb|right|upright|Promotional poster for [[Dutch Boy Paint|Dutch Boy]] lead paint, United States, 1912|alt=A promotional poster for "COLLIER White Lead" (these words are highlighted) featuring a large image of a boy]]Further evidence of the threat that lead posed to humans was discovered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mechanisms of harm were better understood, lead blindness was documented, and the element was phased out of public use in the United States and Europe. The United Kingdom introduced mandatory factory inspections in 1878 and appointed the first Medical Inspector of Factories in 1898; as a result, a 25-fold decrease in lead poisoning incidents from 1900 to 1944 was reported.{{sfn|Hernberg|2000|p=246}} Most European countries banned lead paint—commonly used because of its opacity and water resistance{{sfn|Crow|2007}}—for interiors by 1930.{{sfn|Markowitz|Rosner|2000|p=37}}

The last major human exposure to lead was the addition of [[tetraethyllead]] to gasoline as an [[antiknock agent]], a practice that originated in the United States in 1921. <!--The sale of leaded gasoline was temporarily phased out in some American cites from 1924, due to adverse press coverage, but reintroduced by no later than 1927 after scientific studies of the time found no good reasons for continuing the ban.{{sfn|Uekoetter|2004|p=132}}--> It was phased out in the United States and the [[European Union]] by 2000.{{sfn|Riva|Lafranconi|d'Orso|Cesana|2012|pp=11–16}}

In the 1970s, the United States and Western European countries introduced legislation to reduce lead air pollution.{{sfn|More|Spaulding|Bohleber|Handley|2017}}{{sfn|American Geophysical Union|2017}} The impact was significant: while a study conducted by the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] in the United States in 1976–1980 showed that 77.8% of the population had elevated [[blood lead level]]s, in 1991–1994, a study by the same institute showed the share of people with such high levels dropped to 2.2%.{{sfn|Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|1997}} The main product made of lead by the end of the 20th century was the [[Lead-acid battery|lead–acid battery]].{{sfn|Rich|1994|p=117}}

From 1960 to 1990, lead output in the [[Western Bloc]] grew by about 31%.{{sfn|Rich|1994|p=17}} The share of the world's lead production by the [[Eastern Bloc]] increased from 10% to 30%, from 1950 to 1990, with the [[Soviet Union]] being the world's largest producer during the mid-1970s and the 1980s, and China starting major lead production in the late 20th century.{{sfn|Rich|1994|pp=91–92}} Unlike the European communist countries, China was largely unindustrialized by the mid-20th century; in 2004, China surpassed Australia as the largest producer of lead.{{sfn|United States Geological Survey|2005}} As was the case during European industrialization, lead has had a negative effect on health in China.{{sfn|Zhang|Yang|Li|Li|2012|pp=2261–2273}}