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Lead is even deadlier than was feared

theguardian.com

51–60 of 184 posts

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#51
post #45

It's interesting that aircraft still use leaded fuel. From what I can tell this is ultimately due to cost concerns.

Only in priston engines, and it’s mostly due to the fact that changing the engines, which are currently reliable and in many cases have been for decades, could introduce new issues. It’s a snails pace industry due to safety and reliability concerns for the most part. It’s super annoying because i always want the best new thing to go with a plane, but when you’re in the cockpit, it’s comforting knowing the plane is 80…

Also, most small airports only carry one fuel, i imagine those making new planes don’t get customers excited about planes you cannot take everywhere due to limited availability of fuels.

I love/hate flying for all these reasons.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#52
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

General Aviation (private planes) are STILL spewing lead into the atmosphere. It's not like they don't have the money to fix it, they just don't care about the externalities.

It's very hard to change anything in GA. Reliability is a much higher priority in aviation, if the engine in your car dies, you stop, if the engine in your plane dies, you fall out of the sky. GA planes also generally last a lot longer than cars, you have Cessnas from the 70's still flying with their original engines from the 70's.

You still have Cessnas from the 60s in my local club!

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very hard to change anything in GA. Reliability is a much higher priority in aviation, if the engine in your car dies, you stop, if the engine in your plane dies, you fall out of the sky. GA planes also generally last a lot longer than cars, you have Cessnas from the 70's still flying with their original engines from the 70's.

No, if the engine in your plane dies you glide.

And if you’re over water, mountains or generally unfriendly land...you probably want to glide longer than you actually can.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#54

Does anyone know of what foods mitigate the accumulation of lead or other heavy metals in the body?

Lipoic acid will remove some heavy metals from your body. It can also cross the blood-brain barrier and remove mercury, one of the few things that can.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#55

I was actually pondering something related today. I worry about my cats' paws getting glass in them. Because the pavement is full of tiny pieces of glass, even worse if someone breaks a bottle outside, they won't actually vacuum and clean it up, I guess wind can help a bit..but it's just shuffling the glass around. Glass doesn't decay on a human time scale. Which brought me to the grim fact that there are so many sub…

Glass does not have to decay. It is chemically basically the same as sand. So as long as it does not have larger sharp edges, it is a normal part of nature.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#56
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asbestos is still manufactured and sold in some countries. Crazy I know.

As it's a naturally occuring mineral, you can't avoid it completely. https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/asbestos-found-nevada-...

> As it's a naturally occuring mineral, you can't avoid it completely

Isn't that also true of Lead?

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#57
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read up on BPA, drinking from plastic bottles and other endocrine disruptors we still allow in our food supply. As a side note, a lot of people think more quantity = more poisonous. This is not always the case as a small amount can mimic a hormone wrecking our hormone levels over time.

https://newrepublic.com/article/86339/toxins-plastic-shampoo... is interesting.

Thanks for sharing, this should be required reading.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#60

It's interesting that aircraft still use leaded fuel. From what I can tell this is ultimately due to cost concerns.

The engines used in most small aircraft are basically unchanged since the 1950s or 60s. Aircraft are required to have regular maintenance, including major overhauls, so while these engines are archaic in terms of technology they keep running fine and have a track record of reliability. Newer designs would have to be certified by the FAA, which is apparently an extremely expensive process. General aviation is already so expensive that it's inaccessible to most people, so no one really wants to push the price tag up even more.
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