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Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

medicalxpress.com

71–80 of 479 posts

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#71
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a stop valve that went bad and I wanted to replace it with a ball-valve because I prefer quarter-turn valves for shutoff valves. No ball-valves at the hardware store were lead free.

just a fair warning that you should close that quarter-turn valve very gradually when there is running water if you ever find a non-leaded version... water hammer can and will burst the weakest of your pipes.

For those that do not know, Practical Engineering has video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoLmVFAFjn4

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm making tea I do. I can't imagine that lead is boiling off...

That's a terrible way to make tea, fwiw.

I want to stress that I actually don't give a shit (I am not that into tea, I just drink it sometimes, it's not a big deal to me), but I am curious as to why.

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#73

This is why I stopped eating paint chips.

Some of my bloodwork revealed subclinical lead poisoning. Part of the investigation was to take the dirty A/C filter in for lab analysis of the dust. I had lead in that filter, so I moved out. No idea where it came from.

EDIT: It was an apartment. FWIW, even new apartments can have other issues, like a brand new place my friend was working on had rampant mold issues (built & exposed throughout monsoon season). So you really have to be careful.

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#74
post #18
post #6

I'd like to point out that, although it is illegal to put lead in water supply lines in the US, there is a loophole that allows it in hot water lines. As a result, for certain fittings, most big-box hardware stores only sell the leaded variants, and label them "hot water heater supply line" or something similar.

There’s another loophole: “lead free” means that the wetted surface is no more than 0.25% lead (by mass, I think). As far as I know, lead has nice properties as an element added to brass alloys. Which is not an excuse for using it, IMO. (Why is any of this still a thing? Stainless steel is cheaper than copper these days, and it’s a great material as long as you aren’t trying to screw one piece of stainless steel into…

Are there? It seems like plastics are shaping up to be the modern day lead.

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#75
post #9
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Critical race theory explains IQ differences between socioeconomic groups (including races) extremely well.

Nit: CRT certainly offers an explanation, but I don't think it's a particularly good one. Because it always appeals to "systemic injustice", it can't account for things like

1. the persistence of between group IQ differences amongst children people who have relocated to other countries/culture;

2. the disproportionate success of certain historically-marginalized groups;

3. regression to the mean; and,

4. other factors that marginally influence IQ scores (e.g. single-parent household vs dual-parent household)

without engaging in circular reasoning.

At best, CRT's explanation is incomplete.

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#76
post #26

Does anyone know the the risk is for electronics hobbyist?

Unless you're dealing with electronics made prior to 2006, almost all of what you'll be soldering with is lead-free. Thank the EU's RoHS directive for that.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Subst...

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#77
post #6

I'd like to point out that, although it is illegal to put lead in water supply lines in the US, there is a loophole that allows it in hot water lines. As a result, for certain fittings, most big-box hardware stores only sell the leaded variants, and label them "hot water heater supply line" or something similar.

So most likely that is focused on hydronic heating systems. Personally at my local home improvement store all the fitting in the plumbing section are listed as potable/lead free.

If you have some examples of fittings that you are referring to I would be interested. I can only really find hydronic circulator pumps that are only low lead instead of lead free.

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#78
post #6

I'd like to point out that, although it is illegal to put lead in water supply lines in the US, there is a loophole that allows it in hot water lines. As a result, for certain fittings, most big-box hardware stores only sell the leaded variants, and label them "hot water heater supply line" or something similar.

What are we going to do? Pass a law? To force the millions of voters paying hardly any property tax who bought their lead-loaded homes in 1983 for $40,000 in Los Angeles and San Francisco, now worth $1.1m, to you know, fix them? Then will we pay for the even greater rise in rents? I hate lead, pollution and my incredibly cheap landlord, but I feel like I have no choice in California.

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#79
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it specially allowed in hot water lines?

I think that is allowed because we don’t drink from the hot water tap.

If the water was already hot because I was doing something else, I'll make soup or pasta with a pot of hot water. If the kitchen were closer to my water heater, I'd do it more consistently.

Re: Lead poisoning causes more death, IQ loss than thought: study

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's almost as if circumstances matter and we should be looking for ways to improve :thinking:... I don't think anyone would classify white people from the US from the 1900s as mentally handicapped but, well, at least someone else said that and it wasn't me. > Over the past 100 years, Americans' mean IQ has been on a slow but steady climb. Between 1900 and 2012, it rose nearly 30 points, which means that the average…

And if the public (sometimes even people in academia)'s reaction to any data they don't like is outrage, how could we look for ways to improve anything?
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