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Lead is even deadlier than was feared

theguardian.com

151–160 of 184 posts

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#151
post #96

Are lead lined walls dangerous? I wanted to have a shed basement with lead lines walls to double as a bunker. How does one actually get lead poisoning except thru contamination of water etc.?

Touching the lead and then touching your face, food, or others' hands, breathing dust from the lead, etc.

Maybe you can achieve your goals with other materials, like soil, rock, cinder block, etc.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#152
post #35

What is still a safe lead blood value? And is there any merit in "chelation" therapies, as advocated on health websites, like this one, [1]? [1] https://www.livestrong.com/article/199912-what-natural-herbs...

There is merit to chelation therapy as a means of eliminating mercury (and other heavy metals including lead) stored in the body, but many protocols, both alternative and conventional, don't consider the full complexities involved and can be more harmful than beneficial.

There are a number of relevant factors including length of exposures (acute or chronic poisoning) and form of metal (organic, inorganic, metallic - for mercury at least).

By far the best source I found on the topic is Andrew Cutler, a chemistry PhD from Princeton who was mercury poisoned himself and created an effective and safe protocol for removal. He has a strong background in kinetics, pharmacokinetics, and biochemistry in general, and recognized that the standard toxicological protocols for heavy metal treatment were very dangerous (e.g. infrequent high dose IV administrations of DMPS/DMSA) , especially for cases of chronic poisoning.

According to Cutler, protocols such as the one you linked are very dangerous as they don't administer the chelating agent according to its metabolic half-life in the body (the half-lives of the chelating agents in cilantro and chlorella are unknown). As a result blood levels of the chelating agent and the metals fluctuate greatly. This can mobilize previously sequestered metals, but not provide the body enough time to properly eliminate them, which results in "re-poisoning" events. And when a large amount fat-loving free metals are released by the chelating agents within a short period of time, they often enter the central nervous system, settle there and exacerbate neurological symptoms.

I have no background in chemistry, so that's my summary of what I've read. But I highly recommend his book [1] which focuses mostly on mercury, but he covers lead as well. There are a few interviews with him around the web as well [2]. Also happy to provide more info and sources as I have two of his books and they both cite a wide array of sources.

[1] http://www.noamalgam.com/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8AQGrh0XMw&t=34s

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#153

Lead is still used all over the place in he USA. Its very concerning. You have to specifically look for lead free versions. Examples: * "fake" christmas decorations (trees, wreaths) often contain lead * Garden hoses almost always contain lead

Most electrical cords have it in them as well. Believe stuff from IKEA doesn't though as it meets EU standards.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#154
post #146

Lead is still used all over the place in he USA. Its very concerning. You have to specifically look for lead free versions. Examples: * "fake" christmas decorations (trees, wreaths) often contain lead * Garden hoses almost always contain lead

A lot of these are vastly less dangerous than the use of tetraethyl lead in gasoline or other forms in which significant quantity can be easily taken up by the body (e.g. the old white lead carbonate paint pigment). While it's reasonable to be extra careful with small children that might put decorations in their mouth, small amounts of lead in vinyl products (or more significant amounts in machined brass products) do…

Perhaps. From the article "Last week, a massive new study concluded that lead is 10 times more dangerous than thought, and that past exposure now hastens one in every five US deaths."

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With an ever expanding world population, possibly on the verge of unsustainable, would a plummeting birth rate necessary be a bad thing? Sure it would mean redesigning how we see the world (the retirement and economic models), but we can either tackle it now or when it's forced upon us.

Well if the only effect was a plummeting birth rate, then maybe it wouldn't be bad, but it's also been testosterone levels that have dropped considerably[1], which according to that site "[decreased testosterone] is often associated with diabetes, abdominal obesity, sexual dysfunction, depression and other adverse conditions." There have also been increases in those who identify as LGBT[2]. Such massive increases in…

Though this topic is incredibly sensitive, it needs to be considered. On a somewhat related note, boys who are prenatally exposed DES (a strong estrogen) while pregnant are significantly more likely to be transgender.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diethylstilbestrol [See Des Sons]

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#156
post #112
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We already accept the impact of millions a year dying as a result of industrial pollution... We accept them because the mainstream narrative does not make a big issue of it. On the other side, we make a big deal when there is a measles death, calling for death of anti-vaxxers, because the mainstream narrative suggests so... In other words, the public, including the people here. is a bunch of morons who won't jump aw…

Industrialization has many positive aspects. Its byproducts may lead to some deaths, but they also lead to saved or longer lives for many. There is a decent chance that the positives outweigh the negatives. Measles...it's hard to make a case that the benefits of getting measles outweigh anything.

This is my viewpoint as well, with the additional though that where we can reduce the negative impacts of industrialization, we should. We can definitely do much more to reduce pollution, without giving up the advantages of industry.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#157
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.

BPA and other xenoestrogens scare me the most. Men's sperm counts have gone down 50% in the last 30 years, nobody knows why, but the estrogens in our products/water/air aren't out of the question. It's scary how little it scares everyone else.

>Men's sperm counts have gone down 50% in the last 30 years, nobody knows why, but the estrogens in our products/water/air aren't out of the question.

I... guess I don't really see this as nearly as scary as "impaired mental development in children" or "increased cancer rates for everyone" - I mean, sure, if you can't have children after medical intervention, that's a problem; but I'm not sure that requiring medical intervention to have a child is in and of itself a particularly bad thing. it's not something you want to do by accident, and raising a child is incredibly expensive; adding a bit to the up-front cost seems a lot less scary than adding to the costs down the line (I mean, through the development problems caused by lead.)

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With an ever expanding world population, possibly on the verge of unsustainable, would a plummeting birth rate necessary be a bad thing? Sure it would mean redesigning how we see the world (the retirement and economic models), but we can either tackle it now or when it's forced upon us.

Well if the only effect was a plummeting birth rate, then maybe it wouldn't be bad, but it's also been testosterone levels that have dropped considerably[1], which according to that site "[decreased testosterone] is often associated with diabetes, abdominal obesity, sexual dysfunction, depression and other adverse conditions." There have also been increases in those who identify as LGBT[2]. Such massive increases in…

My understanding is that medically speaking, increasing your testosterone levels is something you can do fairly easy, compared, say, to dealing with the cognitive impairment caused by heavy metal poisoning.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#159
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-...

Lava is naturally occurring... Yet I do a pretty good job of avoiding it.

Re: Lead is even deadlier than was feared

#160
post #81

TLDR: 400,000 annual US deaths are attributed to lead poisoning, 10x increases over previous estimates. The difference is due to previous studies excluding low doses of lead, assuming they have no effect. The news here is that any rise of lead is dangerous. The study is observational and looking for correlation, involves 12k people, and controls for all usual factors including wealth. It seems legit to me, given that…

At a valuation of $10MM/life, deaths from lead cost the USA $4 TRILLION per year.

Meanwhile, the gross national income is only around $18 trillion/year.

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