So, what did you learn from your study?

A prominent American university is in trouble after one of its lead paint studies apparently went very awry. In the middle 1990s, Johns Hopkins recruited more than 100 families with healthy children to live in houses in Baltimore with varying ranges of lead paint levels. The school was trying to find inexpensive ways of reducing lead contamination. However, several parents sued, claiming that exposures to lead paint during the study caused their children to develop learning disabilities; the suit also contends that the researchers did not fully disclose the amount of lead paint present, or the dangers of exposure. The university is also being investigated by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services for violations of its rules governing studies that use human subjects. The Maryland court hearing the case criticized JHU, comparing its study with the infamous Tuskegee project that withheld treatment for syphilis from black subjects to learn the effects of the disease.