When Phish drummer Jon Fishman brought his son to the doctor, her blood work showed a higher concentration of lead. Fishman and his family recently moved into a 200 year old house in Maine, where the toxic element lay dormant in the walls and paint. Naturally, Fishman knew something had to be done.
“Lead is all over the damn place — aging and chipping… It’s an epidemic. And it’s causing serious health problems in lots of kids around the country,” said Fishman in an interview with Huffington Post. “I’m just trying to parlay the little celebrity I have to raise awareness.”
Phish’s drummer donated to the movie project MisLEAD, which hopes to raise awareness about the millions of home contaminated with lead. The problem is an epidemic, as many developers used lead-based paints during the early-to-mid 20th century.
Fishman said, “Lead’s presence in the environment has nothing to do with being rich or poor. More rich people are buying older places, and then going in and stirring up the lead… That’s exactly what I did.” He also added, “If you find lead, it can be a giant pain in the ass… But I just can’t stress enough that, if you discover it in your environment, you do something about it and do your due diligence to make sure it is done right.”
You can read the full interview here, which goes more in-depth about the lead problem in America, and find out about the misLEAD film project here.