Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
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Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#2My house was built in the 70s and I've tested surfaces over the years and have not found any lead paint yet. Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#3My house was built in the 70s and I've tested surfaces over the years and have not found any lead paint yet. Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys.
> Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys.
Yeah this was going to be my question, is where is the lead coming from? Water, toys, what else?
Having a 4 week old, seeing this concerns me so I'd love to do what I can to avoid it.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#4scientists saw observable levels of the toxic metal in about half
As a former analytical chemist, we can detect most metals down to the parts per trillion or lower.
So the more sensitive our instruments get the “more kids have lead”.
With sufficiently sensitive testing you’d probably find lead in 100% of people.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#5My house was built in the 70s and I've tested surfaces over the years and have not found any lead paint yet. Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys.
> Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys. Yeah this was going to be my question, is where is the lead coming from? Water, toys, what else? Having a 4 week old, seeing this concerns me so I'd love to do what I can to avoid it.
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Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#6My house was built in the 70s and I've tested surfaces over the years and have not found any lead paint yet. Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys.
> Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys. Yeah this was going to be my question, is where is the lead coming from? Water, toys, what else? Having a 4 week old, seeing this concerns me so I'd love to do what I can to avoid it.
Soil, water, lead pipes.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#7more than half of all humans, but yes, that includes kids; keywords "body burden chemicals" or more recently "forever chemicals"
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#8scientists saw observable levels of the toxic metal in about half As a former analytical chemist, we can detect most metals down to the parts per trillion or lower. So the more sensitive our instruments get the “more kids have lead”. With sufficiently sensitive testing you’d probably find lead in 100% of people.
> most of the affected kids ... didn’t have enormous amounts of lead in their bloodstreams, and only two percent had a "high" level. But as the researchers note in their paper, there's no such thing as a safe amount of lead to have in your system.
It's possible that more sensitive instruments will allow us to eventually conclude "this small amount X of lead is safe to have ...". But it makes sense to take this seriously. We know lead is bad and we know lots of environmental exposure to lead exists.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#9scientists saw observable levels of the toxic metal in about half As a former analytical chemist, we can detect most metals down to the parts per trillion or lower. So the more sensitive our instruments get the “more kids have lead”. With sufficiently sensitive testing you’d probably find lead in 100% of people.
Look at the actual paper for the actual numbers. Also lead is a problem in any concentration.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#10My house was built in the 70s and I've tested surfaces over the years and have not found any lead paint yet. Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys.
> Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys. Yeah this was going to be my question, is where is the lead coming from? Water, toys, what else? Having a 4 week old, seeing this concerns me so I'd love to do what I can to avoid it.
It's in the solder used to join pipes together.
Even after "lead pipes" were banned in the US, it was still used to join copper pipe together.
It's also in solder used in electronics, although I doubt that half of American children have a parent who regularly solders at home.