The toxic effects of lead have been known for centuries. Its many useful properties gave rise to a dramatic escalation of lead use around the time of the industrial revolution, when lead poisoning was common amongst workers in the smelting, painting, plumbing, printing and other industries. With the advent of motor vehicles early in the 20th century, and the use of lead in petrol, environmental lead contamination increased substantially.

The Healthy Cities movement has its origins in the recognition that health is determined much less by health services than by social, environmental and economic factors, as originally pointed out by McKeown.2 Observations of this kind gave rise to the now well-established concepts of Health Promotion and Primary Health Care and policies such as WHO’s Health for All.