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Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

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Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#31

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

geden wrote: post #26
globular-toast wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of properties in the UK still fed by lead water pipes. It's not something people talk about often, but it can be a problem and should be part of a good property survey.

Our Victorian property still has a (shared) lead supply pipe. I've been repeatedly told it's not an issue due to (presumed) calcification on the inside of the pipe. All the interior pipework is copper. Our water was tested years ago by the waterboard and came back way below the legal limit. Yet still... I'm suspicious. Can anyone point me at resources to help prove it's unsafe?

> Our Victorian property still has a (shared) lead supply pipe. I've been repeatedly told it's not an issue due to (presumed) calcification on the inside of the pipe

In London or the general area? The water is lousy with calcium, hard AF, so that's a good bet.

The notorious lead in the water issue in Flint, Michigan was not just "pipes made from lead" but also that they carelessly switched water supply to a new one that over time, corroded the deposits off the inside of the pipes so that the lead could leach out.

Once that had happened, "the damage already done to Flint’s water supply infrastructure by more than 18 months of exposure to corrosive water. Even after the water supply was reconnected to the (original water supply), officials advised against drinking Flint water."

https://www.britannica.com/event/Flint-water-crisis

As to what to do with your pipes - you can find water testing kits on the big online retailer for under £30

Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#32

Post by analog31 »

geden wrote: post #26
globular-toast wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of properties in the UK still fed by lead water pipes. It's not something people talk about often, but it can be a problem and should be part of a good property survey.

Our Victorian property still has a (shared) lead supply pipe. I've been repeatedly told it's not an issue due to (presumed) calcification on the inside of the pipe. All the interior pipework is copper. Our water was tested years ago by the waterboard and came back way below the legal limit. Yet still... I'm suspicious. Can anyone point me at resources to help prove it's unsafe?

Look up Flint, Michigan. The layer on the inside of the pipe is great until something happens to the chemical composition of the water without planning for the effects. The city changed its water supply and all of a sudden everybody got poisoned.

Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#33

Post by sjhuang26 »

pgt wrote: post #27
tzs wrote: post #24

I can't give a cite for the following I read it in either a newspaper or magazine probably 30+ years ago. There was a school district in a small town that for the first time gave IQ tests to all of the children in some younger age group, I think around 7 or 8. The results showed a several point difference between the white kids and the Black kids. The district wrote this off as due to cultural bias in the tests. One…

Simpson’s Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox

I am wondering how this could be Simpson's Paradox.

Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#34

Post by bjt2n3904 »

tomhoward wrote: post #6

> These impacts are thought to be largely irreversible I'm noticing this claim made a lot in various contexts these days, most notably relating to the pandemic (about both the virus and vaccines). In those contexts as well as this one, I feel like it's used in a weaponised way to emphasise the seriousness of the harm caused, but by doing this there's some abandonment of those who have been harmed and consigns them to…

If diagnosis and treatment are not widely available, how can this page assert that 1/3 of children have lead poisoning?

Is it just an educated guess?

Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#35

Post by cathedral2 »

There's a new drug emerging from Berkeley and a company spawned from there called HOPO [1]. The drug is a chelator that has a special affinity for heavy metals in the lanthanide group, which happen to be some of the more toxic metals. This includes gadolinium, which is found in MRI contrast agents, and has been known to cause many-year retention in the bones and skull [2] from just a single dose.

"The chelating agent 3,4,3-LI(1,2-HOPO) has been specifically optimized for the selective binding of heavy metals, and it promotes their rapid removal from the body. Unlike other chelating agents, it does so without depleting the body of essential mineral elements such as zinc and calcium."

They were initially focused on gadolinium but have recently pivoted to lead poisoning as a seemingly more addressable market.

[1] http://www.hopotx.com/science/

[2] https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-d...

Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#36

Post by nerdponx »

geden wrote: post #26
globular-toast wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of properties in the UK still fed by lead water pipes. It's not something people talk about often, but it can be a problem and should be part of a good property survey.

Our Victorian property still has a (shared) lead supply pipe. I've been repeatedly told it's not an issue due to (presumed) calcification on the inside of the pipe. All the interior pipework is copper. Our water was tested years ago by the waterboard and came back way below the legal limit. Yet still... I'm suspicious. Can anyone point me at resources to help prove it's unsafe?

This is an issue in the northeast USA too. The city of Boston for example provides subsidies for buildings to replace their lead supply pipes.

Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#37

Post by refrigerator »

LEEP (https://leadelimination.org) is a very promising early stage non-profit working on this problem.

They’re currently working in Malawi, Pakistan, Liberia + I think a couple of other countries, and expanding this year.

If they're successful then their work will be more impactful (per dollar spent) than even the top GiveWell recommended charities.

Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#38

Post by pcr0 »

300bps wrote: post #10

I remain shocked how we in the United States knowingly poisoned generations with leaded gasoline. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-... In searching for a substance that made gasoline less flammable (and hence stopped it from igniting outside of a cylinder, i.e. "knocking") we tried everything including adding melted butter! Lead along with a lot of other things worked well but we went with…

Leaded fuel is still widely used in piston engine airplanes (most small airplanes).

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/leaded-gas-wa...

Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#39

Post by tomhoward »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #34
tomhoward wrote: post #6

> These impacts are thought to be largely irreversible I'm noticing this claim made a lot in various contexts these days, most notably relating to the pandemic (about both the virus and vaccines). In those contexts as well as this one, I feel like it's used in a weaponised way to emphasise the seriousness of the harm caused, but by doing this there's some abandonment of those who have been harmed and consigns them to…

If diagnosis and treatment are not widely available, how can this page assert that 1/3 of children have lead poisoning? Is it just an educated guess?

The figure comes from this paper [1].

I gather they do estimates based on sampling, but no doubt the testing rates and accuracy vary a lot from country to country, and the figure is presented for rhetorical impact over precision.

[1] https://www.unicef.org/media/109361/file/The%20toxic%20truth...

Re: Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

#40

Post by bluGill »

citrin_ru wrote: post #22
C_Don7 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One cost-effective program is to ban the sale of lead paint in those countries without regulation (over half of countries globally). This article looks into this and other solutions: https://rethinkpriorities.org/publications/global-lead-expos... . Disclaimer: I co-direct a nonprofit that advocates for lead paint regulation (LEEP: https://leadelimination.org/ ).

Is indoor lead paint is still being sold anywhere in the world? Not banned doesn’t necessarily mean it is actively used.

Considering China keeps shipping toys to the US with high lead levels, I wouldn't be surprised if they make lead paint for domestic use. I have no interest in looking up how, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was easy to find the recipe for lead paint and make it in your garage. I have read enough about making homemade finish to think anyone who gets the recipe - including passed down over generations by people living in mud huts - can make it.
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