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

medicalxpress.com

121–130 of 479 posts

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

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Who bought the place after disclosing airbourne lead dust in the house?

Perhaps OP had a rental with an in-unit AC unit which is pretty common here in the US.

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

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Who bought the place after disclosing airbourne lead dust in the house?

If it was a rental, GP would never know who moved in next. (I would describe leaving a rental as "moved out" and leaving a house I owned as "sold it". Given they used "moved out", I'd wager even-money it was a rental.)

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

#123
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of argument that lead-free solder isn't as good (or easy to use) and several hobbyists still use leaded solder.

Lead-free solder can be a bitch to work with for some projects due to the higher melting point, and I do keep a spool of leaded wire around for that reason - but generally speaking for most hobbyist uses it's a non-issue as long as you have a relatively modern iron that can output enough heat (and retain it).

Yeah, a good iron and wire with a decent flux core helps a lot. Lead-free solder will never melt like butter the way leaded does, but I solder with it fairly often at work and it's not a show-stopper by any means.

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

#124
post #105
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goodhart's law strikes again. As soon as IQ becomes a measurable thing, populations that measure it will act in ways that increase it. Shocking, I know.

Indeed, except that IQ has not became a thing to optimize for, and even if it was, there are no known ways to increase it.

There is one way:

https://gwern.net/embryo-selection

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

#125
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 is also an exception for leaded gas in small/private jets ("AVGas") so its used in some of those formulations.

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

#126
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested to know how someone can be sure that the cookware/tableware/cutlery in their home is safe. Is this a result of far lower standards in other places or just a result of that being the region that was tested for the report (the post doesn't say, it just mentions that samples were collected from developing countries). This could very easily be a massive problem in the developed world too and you wouldn'…

Here's a study showing various levels of lead leaching into drinks from ceramic mugs found in the US: https://foodsafetyandrisk.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186... Important quote: "The estimated daily dose of lead exceeded the California Maximum Allowable Dose Level of 0.5 μg per day for one of the five mugs tested." Previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29606600

I probably dodged this ceramic problem because I drink from borosilicate glass beakers. (Yes, I buy new, unused labware for cooking/drinking use.)

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

#127
post #103
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something interesting to point out is that until about 2014 "lead-free" plumbing could in fact contain amounts of lead. I forget the cut-off level but it was something like 8%. I'm not all that worried about lead. In most places it's not an issue because of how restricted it's been, we have tests for it in products, tests in people, etc. I'm more concerned about plastics, forever chemicals, etc which are everywhere,…

This comment doesn't make sense, particularly wrt TFA.

[deleted]

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

#128
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Unrelated to the tea, but cold water is somewhat safer to drink than water coming from your boiler, that's why.

IDK, they said "a terrible way to make tea", I'm assuming there's some sorta tea lore that I'm unaware of

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

#130
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of argument that lead-free solder isn't as good (or easy to use) and several hobbyists still use leaded solder.

Have you ever tried the lead free stuff as compared to a good 60/40 or something like that? It's horrid to use. And the lead-free stuff is far worse in manufactured equipment - how many devices have failed early due to BGA solder joint failures that basically didn't exist before RoHS requirements? I think the nVidia 8600M issues were traced to that, and plenty of other BGA equipment since 2006 or so has failed rather…

It's only horrid when the flux it comes with is crap. Most people try the cheapest garbage they can find on Amazon, and that's the problem.

I use Chipquik SAC305 with water-washable no-clean flux core and I actually prefer working with it over Sn63Pb37.

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