Value Investor Todd Sullivan Advises Former Lead Paint Inc. To Fight Back

Value investor Todd Sullivan sizes up opportunities in the financial marketplace.  Increasingly, he sees that companies' stock and image take a hit before, during and after litigation. Here's what Sullivan, who publishes ValuePlays, recommends that companies do when the lawyers come on the scene.

Todd Sullivan, value investor:

"Companies need to attack.  Punching bags get beat up.  So, there's no question but to go on the offense and educate the public.  Let's consider the former lead paint producers and marketers such as Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries and DuPont. So far, there are at least three facts that the public does not yet know about this whole issue.  They are:

• Master painters demanded lead-based paint, and government experts described that kind of paint as the 'best choice for house owners' because it was washable and durable.
• Federal and state governments recommended, and often specified its use - in the 1920s, the 1930s, and all the way to the 1970s. 
• No U.S. public health official or government - federal, state or local - advocated restricting the use of lead in house paint until 1949. That was when public health investigations in Baltimore first identified the risks to children from chipping and peeling lead in poorly maintained homes.  The federal government did not ban the use of lead-based house paint until the end of the 1970s."

I asked Sullivan where the public can get these facts.

"The public can go to:

http://www.leadlawsuits.com/index.php?s=home

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/surv/stats.html

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/lead_paint.htm