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

medicalxpress.com

461–470 of 479 posts

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

#461
post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stainless in (or near) contact with copper with moisture between them forms a battery, which will corrode them. Metals in a plumbing (i.e. wet) system need to be either isolated from each other or be galvanically compatible. This applies to roofing, too. Nail the flashing down with galvanically compatible nails, or you'll find the flashing all comes loose after a couple years.

> Stainless in (or near) contact with copper with moisture between them forms a battery, which will corrode them. Not really? A battery has two paired half reactions. Something gets oxidized, something gets reduced, and electrons flow through the conductive bits. So if you have some metallic zinc, and you have some copper ions, and you have some metallic copper, and you have electrical contact, zinc will be oxidized,…

I'm not a chemist, but I believe Boeing when they told me never to place copper in contact with stainless, due to galvanic corrosion. Corrosion is the mortal enemy of all airplanes.

You'll also find the same if you google for copper and stainless galvanic compatibility.

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

#462
post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a problem just this past summer hooking up a pressure washer to a hose outlet. After two hours of constant on-off cycling, had the pipe leading to the hose bib burst. You could hear the water hammer quite clearly (and violently!) after I repaired it, so I went back and added a hammer arrestor.

To me what I hear: your pipes weren't supported and your pressure is too high if it can be described as violent. I can hear my old office's script telling me to sell you a PRV or two.

I hear what you’re saying but isn’t it a bit of six of one and half a dozen of the other? The high(er) pressure relative to what the pipes could withstand exacerbates the effects of water hammer induced by the pressure washer’s solenoid constantly slamming open and shut in the matter of milliseconds, no? Lower pressure (via a PRV or otherwise), higher-rated pipes, slowly opening and closing valves, or strategically installed hammer arresters are all (theoretically and to various extents) viable solutions, no?

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

#463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I didn't say it was lead. It is just a dirty, unpleasant container. Not where you want to get your drinking water, especially for tea. It isn't just limescale in your hot water heater, it is whatever your water pipe carries in and accumulates in the tank. We lived at the beach and had to flush sand out every couple years.

Your cold water carries the same junk into your tea. It’s just missing the settling tank that would separate it out.

It is potentially a decade of accumulated junk in the hot water heater. If you aren't able to taste the difference, the data backs up the issue with drinking hot water.

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/health/29real.html

https://blogs.edf.org/health/2018/02/26/lead-hot-water-issue...

https://www.denverwater.org/tap/psa-dont-drink-or-cook-with-...

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

#464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People drink hot water all the time not to mention cooking, tea, instant coffee and more. I always use cold water and then boil it in a kettle. Even in Europe with our copper pipes the heat will dissolve more crap apparently. It's always advised to do this. > That's from water being stagnant for long periods of time. Yeah stagnant under optimal bacterial growth temperatures like 30C. And it enters the body through…

I always use cold water and then boil it in a kettle. That's great for you. This has nothing to do with how absurd the idea of using lead in 'hot pipes' would be. Not drinking it doesn't prevent legionnaire disease. I didn't say anything about drinking, I just said it comes from stagnant water. I still use it for that reason because lead free is a bitch to work with. I only solder micro electronics though. Lead free…

One time I sweated a joint about 1 foot away from an electrical line running inside a steel conduit. The ambient heat (plus, I guess, whatever load was on the wires) was enough to melt the jacketing and cause a short.

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

#465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think the effect of a toxin is a certain curve. A giant initiative to remove it is moderately successful, but the numbers in the population are not coming down as much as you expected. Is it that the toxin is correlated with another substance that is responsible for part of the harm? Is it corruption and the cleanups have been faked, leading to underreporting of exposure without underreporting of results? Or did…

Sheesh I can't believe I missed one: Corruption caused the original numbers to be incorrect, leading to anchoring in subsequent experiments.

It'd be hard for all the studies to measure wrong levels of lead in people's blood, though. How does one get all the different people studying the subject to conspire?

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

#466

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.

I find the first statement hard to believe. Running a car in a closed space is deadly.

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

#467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dear mother no why? Why does the Home Depot garden hoose have 6.8% led in it ... All these small environmental dangers add up. And they are so hard to keep track of. I would never suspect a water hoose to contain led. Let alone 6.8%.

For decades, lead compounds have been used as processing stabilizers in PVC, which has spread the shit everywhere. Hoses, electrical cords, and vinyl window blinds have historically been big sources. Things started changing in the 2000's when companies started seeking compliance with E.U REACH and RoHS regulations. Garden hoses are now largely lead free, as are blinds, but electrical cords have taken longer to switch…

Damnit. I thought the Proposition 65 warnings on Christmas lights and Ethernet cables were just crying wolf.

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

#468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

The rate of obesity is low because of survivorship bias, nothing more, nothing less. For obese and/or disabled people, living in New York is an absolute nightmare if you can’t afford public transit. Despite loving the city amenities, culture, nightlife, one of my family members had to give up and leave NYC because he couldn’t afford cabs everywhere and hated showing up to events late and sweat-soaked otherwise.

> For obese and/or disabled people, living in New York is an absolute nightmare if you can’t afford public transit.

Obesity has increased in recent years as people from all walks of life exercise less and eat out more.

Even when adjusting for poverty and race, studies have shown that close access to parks and other walkable areas, combined with good public transport, reduces prevalance of obesity.

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

#469
post #217
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately lead-free solder is a lot harder to solder with; it just doesn't flow as nicely. Companies doing it in an automated way have long figured it out though. This is why hobbyists are often still using leaded solder, particularly outside of the EU. But also in the EU, because it just flows so damned nice.

That's not actually true though. I find SAC305 to wick into joints faster than leaded solder does, provided you have quality flux in the solder. If you get the cheapest lead-free solder you can find on Amazon it will be bad. Doubly so if you have a non-temperature-controlled soldering iron. Too cold, and it won't melt effectively. Too hot, and exposed metal will oxidize rapidly.

provided you have quality flux in the solder

which you often don't need with leaded solder.

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

#470
post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Convenient point for PEX: If copper pipes aren't properly grounded they'll tend to develop pinhole leaks within that timeframe.

Due to galvanic corrosion / electrolysis?

I'm not a plumber, that's what someone told me once a long time ago. But googling some more, systemic pinhole leakage can also depend on several factors like water cleanliness and pH, with some counties finding grounding doesn't cause pinholing and others finding it does.

The subject may be more complicated than my single sentence can capture.

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