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Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

pnas.org

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Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#21

Post by Spooky23 »

graeme wrote: post #2

Does anyone know if lead levels matter much in adulthood? Found out my local water had lead, old municipal pipes. Drank it about ten years. Or possibly just two. Either way, wondering if I should be concerned or do anything beyond filtering the water (which I do now)

Generally speaking, it’s not something to freak out about. Usually lead is found in the service lines from the main to your house.

Unless the people who run your water utility are criminally negligent (ie. Flint, MI), you’re fine. Run the water for a few seconds before you drink it in the morning to flush out sediment, and if you’re worried, use a filter.

Your water utility is required to test and publish results - look at those as well to understand if there is anything to worry about.

Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#22

Post by mutagen »

verelo wrote: post #6

I recall as a kid, soldering circuit boards. I distinctly remember the label "low lead" and also the smell of the smoke it made. At times, and this is stupid, i would find myself chewing on a piece of the unburnt solder as i debugged a circuit board. Mistakes were made...

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one!

Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#23

Post by lotsofpulp »

csee wrote: post #13

Practically, what should one do to avoid lead poisoning here and now? Lead petrol is banned. Lead paint is banned. Lead pipes are a problem in some areas, but let's assume we don't live in these areas. What do we need to look out for?

Small plane fuel is still leaded. I know a few air fields in my area that were converted to housing developments and/or parks/retail/offices. I assume the ground is still contaminated in those areas, and any fruits from plants growing on it will be contaminated also.

I also assume small planes rain down lead wherever they fly.

Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#24

Post by mindslight »

jeffbee wrote: post #18
csee wrote: post #13

Practically, what should one do to avoid lead poisoning here and now? Lead petrol is banned. Lead paint is banned. Lead pipes are a problem in some areas, but let's assume we don't live in these areas. What do we need to look out for?

Paint chips are the main thing. Don’t needlessly demolish anything and if you do, do it right, with containment and wet cleanup. And, ideally, a trained and licensed crew. Don’t let your neighbors DIY exterior painting, scraping, or demolition, or do it with a fly-by-night unlicensed contractor and no permits. Don’t let your kids chew on the window sills. Don’t garden for food without thinking about it first.

> Don’t let your neighbors DIY exterior painting, scraping, or demolition

WTF? Yes, go ahead and advocate responsible techniques. But if you're the type of meddling busybody that harasses others just for working on their own homes, don't be surprised when nobody listens to you.

Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#25

Post by holidayacct »

I'm from a family that has been in real estate since the 80s. Lead remediation was a mandatory requirement in the late 70s. There is almost no lead anywhere in the country except for cities where there were old industrial manufacturing plants or places where there was illegal dumping of materials.

You literally can't sell a home or purchase a home with lead issues because no one will purchase the property. There are exceptions where people are gaming the system by controlling the property and town inspection departments but largely lead paint poisoning is an old problem that was solved a long time ago.

The only reason children would have a drastic decreae in IQ is going to be a combination of Television and internet usage at extremely young ages which has deleterious affects on will-power, attentional focus, judgement, memory and visuo-spatial analysis. The lead argument really needs to go away it keeps popping up and it is literally impossible in most of the country.

Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#26

Post by csee »

mindslight wrote: post #24
jeffbee wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paint chips are the main thing. Don’t needlessly demolish anything and if you do, do it right, with containment and wet cleanup. And, ideally, a trained and licensed crew. Don’t let your neighbors DIY exterior painting, scraping, or demolition, or do it with a fly-by-night unlicensed contractor and no permits. Don’t let your kids chew on the window sills. Don’t garden for food without thinking about it first.

> Don’t let your neighbors DIY exterior painting, scraping, or demolition WTF? Yes, go ahead and advocate responsible techniques. But if you're the type of meddling busybody that harasses others just for working on their own homes, don't be surprised when nobody listens to you.

Negative externalities between neighbors is a thing. See noise pollution.

Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#27

Post by throwawaycities »

verelo wrote: post #6

I recall as a kid, soldering circuit boards. I distinctly remember the label "low lead" and also the smell of the smoke it made. At times, and this is stupid, i would find myself chewing on a piece of the unburnt solder as i debugged a circuit board. Mistakes were made...

My Dad was born in 1934 and growing up he had toy kits that consisted of lead, a smelter and casts of the toys/figures.

I can find these kinds of kits online from the 60’s but they all claim to be lead free. I wish I could find one of the original kits he had growing up.

Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#28

Post by paulpauper »

Whether it's increased crime or lowered IQ, lead is likely not as potent as the media hype would suggest.

According to a meta study of lead vs. crime the results are inconclusive. Very high exposure to lead my cause a couple point reduction of childhood IQ, which may be temporary and not everyone exposed to lead has a reduced IQ.

Regarding lead & IQ and lead & crime ,some links to studies (and the meta study):

https://greyenlightenment.com/2021/08/02/the-effects-of-lead...

Also, the median childhood exposure to lead in the US for far back as the 1970s was around 15 ug/dl, which was the peak, which may have only conferred .5-2 pt decline in IQ

https://ourworldindata.org/exports/lead-blood-usa-children_v...

Also, this contradicted by Flynn effect, which shows IQs to be rising.

Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#29

Post by monocasa »

holidayacct wrote: post #25

I'm from a family that has been in real estate since the 80s. Lead remediation was a mandatory requirement in the late 70s. There is almost no lead anywhere in the country except for cities where there were old industrial manufacturing plants or places where there was illegal dumping of materials. You literally can't sell a home or purchase a home with lead issues because no one will purchase the property. There are…

I can tell you that lots of houses weren't remediated like you'd expect. An extra layer of paint, and now 50 years on since the 70s both are chipping sort of thing.

Re: Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

#30

Post by pkaye »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #10
_yo2u wrote: post #9

Curious if theres any data on how US compares to other countries

This would be interesting to see - considering most European countries banned lead paint long before the US, I would expect exposure rates to be lower.

For leaded fuel, the European countries banned a few years after US so there was still some exposure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead#Phaseout_and_ba...

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