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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

#41

Post by ubercore »

dj_gitmo wrote: post #36

My kid took a routine test and was found to have 5.0 μg/dL, which is elevated but not alarming. The source is most likely paint chips or dust. I'm in an old building which has lead paint that was painted over. It's totally legal to just paint over the lead paint, but since the building is settling the paint on the door frames often chips off. My landlord has been good about offering to strip in repaint the frames, bu…

If done right the stripping will absolutely be the right move. Cleaning will only get you so far. Your state should have licensed lead remediation contractors

Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say

#42

Post by chmod600 »

wyldfire wrote: post #8
refurb wrote: post #4

scientists 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 seriou…

The point is that "detectable" says more about the instrument than anything else.

If there's no science that says "one atom of lead anywhere in your body is bad", then saying "detectable" is meaningless.

I mean, if you said "we found a detectable number of bullets in half of children", now that would be bad.

Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say

#43

Post by zeven7 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #12
wyldfire wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 seriou…

It's noise. Worry about teaching kids to look both ways etc before obsessing about this one, is my advice.

I taught my kids to look both ways. Now what do I do?

Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say

#44

Post by djoldman »

How about Chicago:

> The biggest reason is that essentially Chicago and other cities around Illinois required the use of lead service lines all the way until 1986, long after it was recognized that lead was poisonous and other cities had stopped using it. A decade after other cities had stopped using it Chicago and other cities in Illinois were not only using it but requiring the use of lead long after everybody else.

[0] https://news.wttw.com/2021/03/24/chicago-has-more-lead-servi...

Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say

#47

Post by zeven7 »

wallawe wrote: post #3
fullstop wrote: post #2

My 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.

Radiolab just had an interesting episode on how we used to use leaded gasoline and how it resulted in lead being everywhere.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/heavy...

Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say

#48

Post by Pyramus »

silicon2401 wrote: post #22

Topics like this bring modern attitudes about identity to a tricky spot. A common view is that you aren't defined by XYZ, you can choose your identity and who you are or what you do. In reality, things like lead poisoning have a very powerful and undeniable impact on who you are and what you can do, e.g. > Slow development of normal childhood behaviors, such as talking and use of words, and permanent intellectual dis…

> Topics like this bring modern attitudes about identity to a tricky spot.

Not only identity but if you follow this train of thought also criminal responsibility. If I'm not mistaken there is a well known correlation between (childhood) head trauma and serial killers. I remember a case where a guy suffered brain damage in a car accident as an adult, underwent a complete change of character and committed a murder thereafter (can't remember the name though).

These examples are extreme cases for sure, but the effect is much more subtle. There are studies showing that nutritious prison food leads to lower levels of violence etc.

Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say

#49

Post by Someone1234 »

ubercore wrote: post #41
dj_gitmo wrote: post #36

My kid took a routine test and was found to have 5.0 μg/dL, which is elevated but not alarming. The source is most likely paint chips or dust. I'm in an old building which has lead paint that was painted over. It's totally legal to just paint over the lead paint, but since the building is settling the paint on the door frames often chips off. My landlord has been good about offering to strip in repaint the frames, bu…

If done right the stripping will absolutely be the right move. Cleaning will only get you so far. Your state should have licensed lead remediation contractors

Nobody wants to pay to do it right though. So they often just throw on a 3M mask, put up some air filters, and call it good enough. To do it the EPA-approved way can easily cost $10K with an unlimited ceiling.

I'm of the maybe controversial opinion that there should be a program to help residential users with the costs, because the reality is that when the costs are too high (even if for good reason) many just do it wrong, and make the contamination worse.

Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say

#50

Post by kenjackson »

chmod600 wrote: post #42
wyldfire wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 seriou…

The point is that "detectable" says more about the instrument than anything else. If there's no science that says "one atom of lead anywhere in your body is bad", then saying "detectable" is meaningless. I mean, if you said "we found a detectable number of bullets in half of children", now that would be bad.

I think the real point is that detectable levels with modern instruments that are used for such measurements (≥1.0 μg/dL)* is considered bad.

*Another poster noted this level.

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