Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 59 posts

Re: Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases

#11

Post by craftyguy »

crunchlibrarian wrote: post #7
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #4

>The 80-year-old white stucco home... Well there's your problem. Old houses have lead. It should be assumed to be that way unless there's reason to believe otherwise. It'll be another 50+yr before most lead paint is gone. The fact of the matter is that labor is expensive in this country so lead paint is rarely dealt with unless it's conveniently within the scope of other work. I don't think this article very meaningf…

Sure, but when you're talking about a military house inside a military base owned and maintained by the military you have to assume that the military bears some responsibility for it. Just waving your hands and walking away because it's old is a bit short sighted.

I'm non sure why you are being downvoted, and in typical HN fashion no one wants to take the time to explain why.

I don't think anyone would excuse an apartment building owner for renting apartments to tenants with lead painted walls, so I'm not sure why folks here think the US Army should get a free pass...

Re: Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases

#13

Post by brohoolio »

craftyguy wrote: post #11
crunchlibrarian wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but when you're talking about a military house inside a military base owned and maintained by the military you have to assume that the military bears some responsibility for it. Just waving your hands and walking away because it's old is a bit short sighted.

I'm non sure why you are being downvoted, and in typical HN fashion no one wants to take the time to explain why. I don't think anyone would excuse an apartment building owner for renting apartments to tenants with lead painted walls, so I'm not sure why folks here think the US Army should get a free pass...

No one is getting a free pass. The article discusses private landlords.

Re: Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases

#15

Post by brohoolio »

tachang wrote: post #5

Where exactly in the link does it say the army discourages lead testing? Reuters says "Yet it also “discourages” this type of lead-paint inspection" at the link https://phc.amedd.army.mil/topics/workplacehealth/ih/Pages/L...

It doesn’t force remediation for lead paint, it indicates only deteriorating paint is addressed.

Re: Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases

#17

Post by gaahrdner »

prions wrote: post #3

Military bases are some of the most polluted sites in America. Lots of soil/groundwater contamination from BTEX and other poorly handled chemicals. However, Military bases provide a lot of research for remediation engineering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_Superfund_si... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016770120...

Yes, sadly this is not an anomaly: https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/camp-lejeune/

Re: Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases

#18

Post by Theodores »

ra1n85 wrote: post #8
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #4

>The 80-year-old white stucco home... Well there's your problem. Old houses have lead. It should be assumed to be that way unless there's reason to believe otherwise. It'll be another 50+yr before most lead paint is gone. The fact of the matter is that labor is expensive in this country so lead paint is rarely dealt with unless it's conveniently within the scope of other work. I don't think this article very meaningf…

It’s as recent as anything built before 1986 when it comes to lead pipes: https://www.epa.gov/lead/protect-your-family-exposures-lead

In the UK we had lead in petrol until the year 2000 and most motorsports was sponsored by big tobacco in those days. So worrying about a little bit of lead in paint left over from 1986 kind of shows how far we have come.

We did actually have lead free petrol before then in the UK and the government even made it significantly cheaper. But nobody wanted it, they chose to pay extra to put toxic lead in their cars. Damaging their engine bothered people more than damaging their kids brains (or even their own brains).

Luckily the UK was part of Europe and EU legislation resulted in leaded fuel being removed from forecourts.

Re: Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases

#19

Post by sambull »

prions wrote: post #3

Military bases are some of the most polluted sites in America. Lots of soil/groundwater contamination from BTEX and other poorly handled chemicals. However, Military bases provide a lot of research for remediation engineering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_Superfund_si... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016770120...

Family used to work on a big air force base (in major metro), they'd just dump chemicals straight into the creek behind the base from the shops.

Re: Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases

#20

Post by mapcars »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #4

>The 80-year-old white stucco home... Well there's your problem. Old houses have lead. It should be assumed to be that way unless there's reason to believe otherwise. It'll be another 50+yr before most lead paint is gone. The fact of the matter is that labor is expensive in this country so lead paint is rarely dealt with unless it's conveniently within the scope of other work. I don't think this article very meaningf…

>I don't think this article very meaningful

It tells me that we have no idea how dangerous things we use/make are. Killing ourselves with a paint, that's a degenerate way to live.

Post reply on HN