Profiting from poison: how the US lead industry knowingly created a water crisis

The lead water crisis facing Chicago and many other US cities today has roots in a nearly century-old campaign to boost the lead industry's sales

• Revealed: the shocking' levels of toxic lead in Chicago tap water

The year was 1933 and, to a group of industrialists gathered in a New York City lunch club, it seemed like the lead industry was doomed.

The women's pages of newspapers were filled with stories about children being poisoned by the metal, which had been identified as dangerous as early as the mid-1800s. And cities around America had started banning the use of lead pipes for drinking water.