"Toxic lead coursed through Christopher Holland Jr.’s body at two critical points in his life: as a toddler poisoned by lead paint and as a 20-year-old struck down by bullets.

“I saw how it affected his life — with relationships, with his anger issues, always complaining that his head hurt,” Christopher Holland Sr. said of the lead poisoning discovered when his son, known as “Lil Chris,” was 4 years old and living in north St. Louis.

Lead poisoning cases have dropped dramatically since the 1990s, when Lil Chris was a child, but the problem hasn’t gone away. The city’s old housing stock still poses a danger to children in many neighborhoods."

Blythe Bernhard reports for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch January 6, 2019. [2]