The article by Meg Haskell, “Fund to aid state drug surveillance federal grant bolsters online registry” (BDN, Sept. 27-28), on the dangers of lead-based paint in older houses in Maine, was very well done. It touched on all aspects of possible ways of being poisoned by lead-based paint except for one. Why do children eat the paint chips or chew on lead-based painted surfaces?

About 1965, a doctor in Chicago asked himself that question when he was seeing so many small children with lead poisoning. He took some lead-based paint chips and chewed them discovering that it was as sweet as candy.

Perhaps the risk assessment questions should include a No. 5, “Does your child frequently chew painted surfaces?”

Margery Brown

Cherryfield