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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

#111

Post by nradov »

cobookman wrote: post #46

It's shameful the EPA still hasn't banned leaded aviation fuel.

The city of San Jose is forcing a local airport to close largely over lead concerns. However research has shown that children living near the airport don't actually have higher blood lead levels.

https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-airport-lead-levels-ar...

Although the absolute risk is probably small the aviation industry should have moved faster on this issue. Airplanes last longer than cars but they can't expect the status quo to be tolerated indefinitely. At some point airplane owners need to be forced to upgrade their engines, or quit flying.

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

#112

Post by da_chicken »

whimsicalism wrote: post #99
floor2 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why the "right vs left" style of thinking drives me crazy. Unions are constantly doing evil things, usually for the same greedy and power-hungry reasons as any corporate board, and to the same detriment of society at large, but because we think of unions as being on "our side" and latch onto this romanticized notion of the unions of the 1800s they get a pass. The police and prison guard unions constantly do h…

It's not nearly as symmetric as you're making it out to be. In terms of overall welfare, an additional dollar in the pocket of a typical union worker is going to be more welfare enhancing than that additional dollar in the pocket of the typical owner. This is from just basic diminishing marginal utility of the dollar. Of course , unions can do awful, evil things - they are organizations of people and people are petty…

> In terms of overall welfare, an additional dollar in the pocket of a typical union worker is going to be more welfare enhancing than that additional dollar in the pocket of the typical owner. This is from just basic diminishing marginal utility of the dollar.

Remarkably few people seem to truly understand what "marginal propensity to consume" actually means.

Economically, money saved is money lost. Money invested is a promise of debt. Consumption is what drives the economy. That's why the poor and middle class are so important. Without them having enough money, the economics of scale... don't scale.

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

#113

Post by yhoneycomb »

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.

Not seeing how being a chemist makes you a medical expert but ok

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

#114

Post by nradov »

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.

Lead paint is still occasionally found on toys imported from China. But after a previous recall incident the major US toy brands now have better control over their supply chains so the risk should be low.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02697...

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

#116

Post by moftz »

whimsicalism wrote: post #97
WalterBright wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unions are simply businesses that make labor available to companies. Any notion that they are something different from a business is mistaken. Attempts by unions to use government to make themselves legal monopolies are just as bad as any other business using government to do that.

Let me know the next time I can vote to have my CEO replaced, thanks :)

In an employee owned corporation, you would get some say in leadership. Although it's possible that in a large enough corporation, it would be an indirect democracy. You vote for board members who vote for the company leadership.

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

#117

Post by lsllc »

roland35 wrote: post #15

My wife and I are particularly concerned about lead, especially since there is no way to really cure lead poisoning. Any house built before the 1980s could have lead in it, with varying degrees of concern for children. Around the home here is what we found are sources of lead to worry about (or not): - Paint: lead was banned in paint in 1979, but lead was used less and less even before the cutoff date. Paint is espec…

Other hazards in flooring include asbestos. In general, flooring tiles installed between 1920 and 1980 (in the US at least) can contain asbestos, in particular (but not limited to 9x9 tiles).

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/asbestos-floor-tiles/

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

#118

Post by chrischen »

whimsicalism wrote: post #99
floor2 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why the "right vs left" style of thinking drives me crazy. Unions are constantly doing evil things, usually for the same greedy and power-hungry reasons as any corporate board, and to the same detriment of society at large, but because we think of unions as being on "our side" and latch onto this romanticized notion of the unions of the 1800s they get a pass. The police and prison guard unions constantly do h…

It's not nearly as symmetric as you're making it out to be. In terms of overall welfare, an additional dollar in the pocket of a typical union worker is going to be more welfare enhancing than that additional dollar in the pocket of the typical owner. This is from just basic diminishing marginal utility of the dollar. Of course , unions can do awful, evil things - they are organizations of people and people are petty…

Doesn’t have to be one bad person… a union as you say is still self-centered. Since they are an effective monopoly on workers, they can get pretty powerful and thus one-sided in interest seeking.

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

#119

Post by [deleted] »

dwohnitmok wrote: post #74
djoldman wrote: post #44

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…

Interestingly enough, of all the environmental hazards caused by large corporations, here's a rare example of one where this was primarily caused by a union, which while not opposed to the overall removal of lead, demanded the use of pipes which required specialized knowledge to install, which precluded non-brazed copper and plastic pipes used elsewhere in the nation, and effectively made lead pipes the only viable o…

[deleted]

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

#120

Post by josephcsible »

whimsicalism wrote: post #99
floor2 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why the "right vs left" style of thinking drives me crazy. Unions are constantly doing evil things, usually for the same greedy and power-hungry reasons as any corporate board, and to the same detriment of society at large, but because we think of unions as being on "our side" and latch onto this romanticized notion of the unions of the 1800s they get a pass. The police and prison guard unions constantly do h…

It's not nearly as symmetric as you're making it out to be. In terms of overall welfare, an additional dollar in the pocket of a typical union worker is going to be more welfare enhancing than that additional dollar in the pocket of the typical owner. This is from just basic diminishing marginal utility of the dollar. Of course , unions can do awful, evil things - they are organizations of people and people are petty…

> In terms of overall welfare, an additional dollar in the pocket of a typical union worker is going to be more welfare enhancing than that additional dollar in the pocket of the typical owner.

Maybe, but printing a dollar and giving it to a union worker causes worse inflation than printing a dollar and giving it to an owner.

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