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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

#361

Post by nayuki »

asdff wrote: post #181
nayuki wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Are those not too fragile for daily use? A pint glass is so much thicker in comparison than a beaker.

I'm an adult so it's fine. And it's like $10 if I break one, no big deal.

Oh yeah, the beaker doubles as my metric-only measuring cup for cooking. It only has millilitre markings, no fluid ounce or cups at all.

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

#362

Post by harry8 »

swayvil wrote: post #23

Is IQ a piece of private information? Does everybody in the country get an IQ test in school? Can we just look that up in the public records? It sure would be useful if it was public and universal. For tracking the effects of lead poisoning for one. Or just factoring it into any big study. We might find something unexpected.

IQ is only useful for scores well below average to indicate the subject of the test has a serious issue. Any score approaching average or any amount above is not at all useful to indicate anything beyond the subjects' skills at taking IQ tests. It translates to and indicates nothing compared to another mostly average or above score. Psychologists (mostly) want to scream abuse at you about pointing this out. Then have steam shooting out of the ears when you bet them your IQ is higher than theirs and that also, in itself means nothing. There's no magic formula or spell that let's you understand a human faster, better or more accurately than spending the time talking, reading and listening to what they've done and what they think. There is no way to make it objective.

IQ is so much bullshit. Probably why it turns up so often in racist screed masquerading as science. Burn it all down.

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

#363

Post by harry8 »

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?

Well below average IQ scores usually indicate serious and profound cognitive impairment (but for an individual you still have to check).

All other IQ scores indicate nothing at all.

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

#364

Post by harry8 »

mkoubaa wrote: post #252
cltby wrote: post #3

Question for any IQ skeptics here (e.g. "it just measures your ability to take tests" or "it just tells you how rich your parents are"): what's your response to studies like this? Is there anything that can be said about the effect of lead on cognitive function? Why might IQ be a good measure of lead-induced stupidification, but unreliable for literally anything else?

Most IQ skeptics think IQ correlates with intelligence. The argument is generally over how good a proxy it is for intelligence and what conclusions can and can't be drawn from statements about IQ

False.

Low IQ correlates with lack of intelligence. Average and above means nothing.

--IQ skeptic

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

#365

Post by rfrey »

mwint wrote: post #334
hodgesrm wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even today we are pumping so many toxins in to the air to deliver a slower, less efficient, and more expensive form of transport. Slower than what?

[flagged]

Ah yes, the infamous "they", who are plotting to take away your cars, your guns, and your hamburgers.

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

#366

Post by insanitybit »

mlyle wrote: post #344
YokoZar wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are tea drinkers that believe very strongly in using water that isn't "stale" (eg, leftover in the kettle from the last time). Presumably water from the hot water tap would be stale for similar reasons. I think the theory is that "stale" water lacks sufficient oxygen for tea brewing to fully brew or something.

It's not O2: if you let water sit out, various things (including CO2) dissolve in it, making it slightly acidic and taste stale. I'm not a big tea drinker, but I am definitely not a super fan of water that's been sitting out a day. There's not been time for stuff to grow in it yet, but it still tastes gross.

That makes sense.

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

#367

Post by Gigachad »

muglug wrote: post #358
mtalantikite wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swear that living in NYC for nearly two decades has made me incapable of making a grocery list and shopping like pretty much everyone else in the country (only slightly kidding). I just walk down the street and grab what I need. I did just miss the 6 train by 15 seconds and am standing on the platform as I write this, which I guess is annoying? I’ll take it over driving in traffic though.

Whenever I leave NYC and go anywhere else in the US, walking a mile feels like an act of silent rebellion.

Had a friend from Texas move near me in Australia and they have just been exhausted trying to keep up because they aren't used to walking. Walking here is the fastest and most convenient way to get around. By the time you get your car out and find parking, you could have already been there on foot.

You'll observe that the rate of obesity is extremely low in the walkable areas which I really think is heavily because the people there live more active lifestyles just getting around day to day.

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

#368

Post by alwayslikethis »

tjohns wrote: post #213
seventytwo wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this actually true? I think that’s changed. Also - how much of a problem is it? What kind of lead exposure do I receive from a small airplane flying over me one day? What does this risk compare to, say, smoking? Or not wearing my seat belt? Simply stating that a bad thing exists is not enough.

It's true, but that's because there was no legally approved alternative until about a year ago. Now that there's an approved unleaded replacement for 100 Octane avgas (G100UL), I expect leaded fuel will disappear quickly. Airports are currently in the process of installing the new tanks to dispense it. Many of the bay area airports already started offering unleaded 94 Octane (UL94) at the pump as of earlier this year…

The TEL in liquid form is probably much more toxic than metallic or inorganic lead you find in stuff like paints or bullets due to it being more lipophilic and bioavailable. Be very careful with leaded fuel.

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

#369

Post by alwayslikethis »

frankus wrote: post #299
Syonyk wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't lick your boards, wash your hands before you eat, and if you're really concerned, wear gloves while handling solder wire. The smoke from soldering isn't lead - a soldering tip is (if it's not literally glowing into the yellows) far, far too cold to vaporize any lead from solder - you need to be 1500+C for it to start being a problem, and you're not soldering that high. It's rosin smoke, and if you're in doubt,…

A few years back spent a lot of time stripping lead paint using a heat gun and IR emitter thing ("silent paint remover"). It was definitely smelly, but I convinced myself that the temperatures were far too low to vaporize lead. But in the back of my mind I always wondered if there was an equivalent of a eutectic mixture for the liquid/vapor phase transition.

There are. They are usually called azeotropes. For example water and ethanol form an azeotrope, though the difference isn't as drastic as with metals.

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

#370

Post by swader999 »

maxerickson wrote: post #352
Gigachad wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The car and its consequences has been a disaster for society. Even today we are pumping so many toxins in to the air to deliver a slower, less efficient, and more expensive form of transport. And it's not a problem that EVs or self driving cars can solve since a huge amount of the pollution comes from tires.

In lots of places the tailpipe emissions of a modern car are cleaner than the air. CO2 is a pollutant, but it's not a toxin when the concentration is low and oxygen is available.

[flagged]
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