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

medicalxpress.com

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

#231

Post by explaininjs »

nayuki wrote: post #112
amelius wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know people who fill their water boiler with hot tap water ...

I fill my water distiller with hot tap water. Guaranteed to be safe. Yes, I'm talking about a machine that boils the water, collects the steam, and condenses it back to water. It removes absolutely everything.

Absolutely everything… that has a boiling point higher than water’s. It won’t do anything to remove alcohol, for instance. Or any other contamination that boils off before water does.

Ofc you could discard the head and tail of your distillation operation…

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

#233

Post by amluto »

jacquesm wrote: post #223
tredre3 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard of copper-lined PEX, can you tell me more?

I still have a length of it in storage but I don't know the brand by heart. It was pretty expensive stuff and it needed weird fittings, which were also expensive, the inner liner was blue, that much I do recall. In the end I mostly regretted going for plastic, I'd probably use regular copper pipe and crimp fittings again, less hassle and I'm just more familiar with it.

Do you mean PEX-Al-PEX? It’s mostly obsolete now, in favor of “oxygen barrier” PEX. The latter is generally approved for potable use, but there’s no reason to use it. It’s intended for closed-loop heating or cooling systems that contain non-stainless iron alloys, and the idea is that any oxygen initially in the water will be rapidly depleted, and deoxygenated water is not corrosive.

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

#234

Post by m00x »

adasdasdas wrote: post #230

Anyone worried about lead should take calcium pills with vitamin D which helps absorption. Calcium should always be taken with food otherwise your body just ignores it. It works because your body interprets lead as calcium.

You mean calcium reduces lead absorption?

Edit: Ah, vitamin D helps calcium absorption, which then reduces lead absorption.

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

#235

Post by tlrobinson »

gmkabro wrote: post #212
thiht wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are there so many loopholes in every single US law? Everytime there’s a major health issue or anything extremely anti consumer it’s because of a loophole in the formulation of a US law. Are US lawmakers that bad? Or is it judges who interpret laws literally instead of using the intent?

It’s money. The answer is money. Somebody makes money by producing lead-infused products, so they pay off lawmakers to add a loophole that allows them to continue making money.

Bill Gurley’s recent talk is worth a watch https://youtu.be/F9cO3-MLHOM

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

#236

Post by jeffbee »

Willish42 wrote: post #228

This feels like a good time to bring up the lead-crime hypothesis (flaws and all). For those who don't know, there's a strong (if faulty) correlation between lead levels in preschool children and crime rates: https://www.vox.com/2016/1/14/17991876/crime-drop-murder-lea... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis Regardless of what you think about the hypothesis, the growth and crunch in lead levels…

The subsequent evidence is so strong that I don't think it's appropriate to call it faulty. In the paper "Life After Lead" they study a boundary effect of children who were just above and just below treatment thresholds for blood lead levels and the outcomes in terms of crime, school success, etc are stark. Figure 4(F) particularly.

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20160056

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

#237

Post by astrange »

paulpauper wrote: post #168
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #165

So is IQ a "largely pseudoscientific swindle" to quote a popular article from a few years ago, or is it not? Because if the consensus is that it doesn't matter, then why bother using it as a metric here?

taleb's argument has changed to IQ only matters for downside, not upside.

Not changed, that's always what the article he was referring to said.

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

#238

Post by astrange »

narrator wrote: post #66

DMSA, which is the treatment for lead poisoning, is cheap, can be taken orally and has a good safety profile. Shame that doctors are not more familiar with it.

Since taurine can be used to chelate lead, I propose everyone drink a lot of Monster.

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

#239

Post by aidenn0 »

swayvil wrote: post #87
uoaei wrote: 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.

It's interesting how closely tied "goodness" and "intelligence" are. To make a mistake is to be a bad person. To be stupid is to be bad. I can call you weak. I can even call you ugly, cowardly or a flibbertigibbet. But if I call you stupid look out! Like our whole worth as humans is summed in our ability to talk smart and solve riddles like a trained animal. Which seems pretty stupid.

> I can call you weak. I can even call you ugly, cowardly or a flibbertigibbet. But if I call you stupid look out!

This might be a bit peculiar to the HN crowd; calling someone cowardly is fighting-words in many groups.

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

#240

Post by nonrandomstring »

mschuster91 wrote: post #76
djmips wrote: 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...

Not nitpicking but solder for military and public transport applications is exempt and still used, due to better performance under vibration and shock.
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