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

ourworldindata.org

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

#61

Post by andrepd »

jakub_g wrote: post #3

I knew about lead poisoning for a while, but mostly in US context. It's almost a non-topic in Europe since leaded gasoline was banned (I'm actually wondering why: no leaded paints in EU?) If these numbers are true, why this is not on first pages of all media all the time? Crazy. I wonder how reliable are these numbers.

Leaded fuel is still in use in aviation. Not gonna lie, it sits poorly with me that a hobby for rich people can rain toxic chemicals on people below with little to no restrictions.

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

#62

Post by dTal »

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…

This is an excellent cautionary tale against lazily attributing politically inconvenient data to testing bias (which remains fashionable). It may seem like an easy way out, but it also offers an excuse to simply ignore the problem, which perpetuates it.

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

#63

Post by unhammer »

helloguillecl wrote: post #28

Does someone know how to test if a building is contaminated? I live in the EU and this a non-issue, but I'm afraid if/when I have to move back to my home country.

https://tamararubin.com/2018/10/tamara-can-you-come-to-my-ho... Lead-testing as a Service :) That site also has quite a lot of tips on equipment and such. (No affiliation, just saw it from some other hn comment somewhere)

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

#64

Post by account42 »

jhgb wrote: post #2

If anyone (like me) is looking for a map (which seems to be missing from the article), the per-country data is apparently on https://www.pollution.org .

This shows exactly the same stats for China and Taiwan which is unlikely to be correct.

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

#65

Post by thriftwy »

IiydAbITMvJkqKf wrote: post #25
C_Don7 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our World in Data have a map here: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-lead-5micrograms...

This map is very bad since 1. Most countries have "no data" 2. Those that do show an absolute number instead of a percentage, which makes the data essentially useless.

3. Many countries have this number so large that it sounds like "all of them" (How many children there are in China compared to the 106 mln quoted, and of what age?) and one would expect more granularity at this point. Did they actually test 105 mln Chinese children? Does Serbia even have 900k children in the whole country?

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

#66

Post by onion2k »

andrepd wrote: post #61
jakub_g wrote: post #3

I knew about lead poisoning for a while, but mostly in US context. It's almost a non-topic in Europe since leaded gasoline was banned (I'm actually wondering why: no leaded paints in EU?) If these numbers are true, why this is not on first pages of all media all the time? Crazy. I wonder how reliable are these numbers.

Leaded fuel is still in use in aviation. Not gonna lie, it sits poorly with me that a hobby for rich people can rain toxic chemicals on people below with little to no restrictions.

Jet fuel doesn't have lead in it. Avgas is 'low lead', and there's at one unleaded prop plane fuel available.

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

#67

Post by jtbayly »

adrianN wrote: post #12
wongarsu wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is based on a UNICEF report [1], which from a cursory glance seems to suggest that while the problem is present to some degree everywhere, it's by far the most pronounced in East and South Asia (but caused health care costs in relation to GDP is worst in Africa) "One of the most concerning sources of lead exposure is the unsound recycling of used lead-acid batteries (ULABs), most of which are found in car…

Youtube has many extremly scary videos showing battery recycling operations, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEvPjOKkPyE

Yeah, this is truly horrifying. Impressive and horrifying.

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

#68

Post by wing-_-nuts »

narrator wrote: post #53

Perovskite, the new solar panel wonder material will put lead everywhere where there are solar panels in a few years. Carbon nanotubes have asbestos like disease causing properties. Nanotubes are hailed as the new semiconductor material and as having many other wonderful applications. DDTs and PCBs all started out as wonder chemicals. Science marches on.

...and both are fine in laminated materials like solar panels no? No need to scaremonger.

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

#69

Post by kingsloi »

Lead, and other heavy metals are still used today in steel production (and other industries), and have been used for so long, that trace amounts can be found in the road sediment, such as in Gary, Indiana (and most of Northwest Indiana).

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041201...

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

#70

Post by em500 »

helloguillecl wrote: post #28

Does someone know how to test if a building is contaminated? I live in the EU and this a non-issue, but I'm afraid if/when I have to move back to my home country.

I wouldn't call it a non-issue. Lead pipes in new buildings were not forbidden in the Netherlands until 1960, and there are still plenty of older buildings in use (including housing daycares, where drinking tap water is the norm). The extend of the problem here is not clear, but in one sample in a neighborhood in Amsterdam last year, around 19% of the houses had too much lead in the tap water.
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