Is there no biological mechanism in the body to help promote the removal of lead?
Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
131–140 of 276 posts
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#132Earlier 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…
I think OP made a correct argument that that we quickly make this right vs left without dissecting the actual impacts of workers unions. Your comment kind of demonstrates that.
> In terms of overall welfare
What is overall welfare ? If you are talking about society then we already know that free market competition leads to the best outcomes. If you are talking about welfare of specific group of people (at the expense of others) then you are right.
> I'm in favor of workers' ability to elect someone to represent them at the negotiation table (because that is what a union is).
I do not think anyone is opposed to that idea. It is covered under our freedom to form association. But in many cases unions are exact opposite of this. There is only one union which will negotiate on your behalf whether you like it or not and will actively prevent you from selecting someone else to negotiate on your behalf. In such cases workers are less free than before and it is much easier for the employer to get their way by just bribing the union leaders. (This is what happens in every single society where unions have collective bargaining rights.)
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
You completely ignored his point. It's not about who's pockets the dollars wind up in. It's about not permitting groups to harm everyone else.
Or rather, you completely ignored the second half of my comment :) To reiterate, I would support voters being able to decide military policy, even if the alternative was a peaceful oligarchy.
And you double down.
Your second paragraph adds nothing except detailing your reasoning which only serves to exemplify the behavior the comment you are replying to is complaining about. The point of the comment you are replying to is that people have a bad tendency to ignore groups doing evil things for their own gains if they otherwise align with these groups.
Whether it's the moron on one side of the isle screeching about "mUh UnIoNs" or the moron on the other side of the isle screeching about "mUh SmAlL bUsInEsSeS" is irrelevant. People, you very much included, need to refrain from giving groups on "their side" a blank check to engage in evil self serving behavior at everyone else's expense.
Of course the evil to good ratio is not the same for any two groups or groups of groups. His entire point was that that liking one group more than another is a worthless excuse for turning a blind eye to that group's evil. Just because you are able to write a second (or 3rd or 4th) paragraph expanding about why you feel one group deserves a blind eye more than another only serves to illustrate his point.
Your behavior is exactly what he is complaining about.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#134How 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…
As a former union leader I'd just like to say FUCK THOSE GUYS. Holy shit that is fucking infuriating. I did OHSA inspections to prevent shit like that from hurting our members AND THE COMMUNITY. I hope their leadership is burning in hell.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#135My 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…
You can also get lead from crystal glassware. I don't use mine anymore, they're just a decoration.
"fancy" liquor decanters are often some of the worst offenders, because the alcohol increases the leaching speed of the lead from the glass.
https://scotchaddict.com/are-leaded-crystal-decanters-danger...
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#136Is there no biological mechanism in the body to help promote the removal of lead?
No
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#137My 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…
You can treat it with chelation or EDTA. The drugs bind to lead and your body clears it out via the kidneys. Works well if you catch it early.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lead-poisonin...
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems like the lead blood level indicator has been removed from this site, but a friend showed me this map of homicide rates vs one with lead levels from 18 years prior[0] and there was a pretty strong correlation. Obviously there are confounders, but Kevin Drum’s decade old article positing that lead was a major contributor to the crime wave and subsequent reduction is pretty compelling. [1] EDIT: aside, but mayb…
Isn't it possible that places that are too poor to reliably remove potential lead exposure from their environment are also poor enough to attract crime in general? This makes the assumption that poorness and crime are correlated, which I recently learned is not a universal truth.
> This makes the assumption that poorness and crime are correlated, which I recently learned is not a universal truth.
Two variables can be correlated, without being a universal truth.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will say that, at least in the “woke” circles I notice, there is plenty of discussion about how medical knowledge is too centered around the white male. Finding studies that dig into the way race-specific biology should change medical treatment and risk factors is hard, and finding doctors who acknowledge those studies in how they think about patients is even harder.
Scientifically speaking, there is no "race-specific biology". Race is a social construct. But there are ethnicities which get grouped into racial categories.
I agree with that in general, but there are issues that affect people who are more closely related along ethnic lines. The problem is the existing course racial groupings with arbitrary selections based on culture with no scientific basis.
Re: Half of American kids have lead in their blood, doctors say
#140It'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 county of Santa Clara, which owns the airport, is closing it because it is an uneconomical waste of a huge amount of phenomenally valuable land, and it is only 5 miles from a real airport. It serves no legitimate purpose in the society and economy of the Bay Area.