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Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

abc.net.au

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Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#21

Post by umvi »

zug_zug wrote: post #4

It's really scary how a tiny amount of a mineral can permanently damage the human mind. I have to admit there's a part of me that almost wants to be skeptical, that mg of a rock could overcome the wonderous self-aware human mind. Every so often I have to remind that skeptical piece of me that it's an idiot and that every human alive is wildly fragile to any number of elements and chemicals. ------ Onto the article, i…

> It's really scary how a tiny amount of a mineral can permanently damage the human mind.

It's scary how certain things in tiny amounts can have huge effects on humans:

- ricin (1mg or less can be lethal)

- insulin (.05 mL can easily put you in a coma if you don't eat enough sugar to cancel it out)

- countless other toxins, poisons, chemical compounds

- viruses or bacteria since they can multiply might be smallest things of all that can hurt humans

Also related: how much energy is stored in tiny amounts of matter. When fission bombs go off, only a tiny amount of matter is converted to pure energy.

Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#22

Post by throwup238 »

Cordiali wrote: post #14
nanomonkey wrote: post #10

Anyone know a simple method of testing for lead in food? Say a wet chemistry method? I live in California, and I've noticed that everything has a CA Proposition 65 warning label. When I look into it it's generally lead that has bioaccumulated in the plant. What I can't find is how much or how widespread it is in the food.

There's test swabs for leaded paint, but I don't know if they'd be sensitive enough for food. At least where I live, they're pretty cheap, so it could be an interesting experiment. I remember seeing an article a while ago, where some local councils here specifically recommended building raised garden beds for veggie gardens. They apparently found, that in cities/towns older than about a hundred years, the risk of soi…

> I remember seeing an article a while ago, where some local councils here specifically recommended building raised garden beds for veggie gardens. They apparently found, that in cities/towns older than about a hundred years, the risk of soil contamination can be pretty high, the main suspects being lead and arsenic. Raised garden beds is an easy way of eliminating that risk.

I'd recommend raised beds to anyone who lives in a suburb or city that's even a few decades old. The particulates and oils washing off the street and down roof shingles alone introduces plenty of contamination. Very rainy regions like the Pacific Northwest have to build rain gardens [1] everywhere to filter out baseline levels of suburban pollution, otherwise their water gets really bad.

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

Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#23

Post by bloopernova »

sva_ wrote: post #17
01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well as they say, an entire human body is just > Water (35 L), Carbon (20 kg), Ammonia (4 L), Lime (1.5 kg), Phosphorous (800 g), Salt (250 g), Saltpeter (100 g), Sulfur (80 g), Fluorine (7.5 g), Iron (5 g), Silicon (3 g) and trace amounts of fifteen other elements. (The amounts are off somewhat but you get the idea)

You got the recipe instructions or just ingredients?

1: Place 10e9 x ingredients on surface of habitable zone planet around young star.

2: Agitate water via tidal action, allow small amounts to dry and flood multiple times.

3: Add sunlight and electrical storms.

4: Wait 4 billion years.

Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#24

Post by jeffbee »

cjs_ac wrote: post #3

Lead poisoning in Australian mining towns is a surprisingly contentious issue. Town mayors usually try to cover up and deny any evidence of lead poisoning, because without the mines, there is no town. The broken hill that the town of Broken Hill is named after no longer exists. The mullock heap pictured in the article is all that remains: the entire hill was dug away when the original mine was active. As you can see…

"Giant toxic slag heap in the middle of town" is probably pretty common. Was definitely a thing in El Paso, Texas, where I lived in the 1980s.

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/flint-east-chicago-there-was-sm...

Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#25

Post by brightball »

zug_zug wrote: post #4

It's really scary how a tiny amount of a mineral can permanently damage the human mind. I have to admit there's a part of me that almost wants to be skeptical, that mg of a rock could overcome the wonderous self-aware human mind. Every so often I have to remind that skeptical piece of me that it's an idiot and that every human alive is wildly fragile to any number of elements and chemicals. ------ Onto the article, i…

I know this always ventures into conspiracy territory, but this connection with aluminum’s affect on the brain is one of the most contentious issues around the topic of autism.

People have been asking for studies for over a decade and it’s been crickets.

Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#26

Post by lostlogin »

bloopernova wrote: post #23
sva_ wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got the recipe instructions or just ingredients?

1: Place 10e9 x ingredients on surface of habitable zone planet around young star. 2: Agitate water via tidal action, allow small amounts to dry and flood multiple times. 3: Add sunlight and electrical storms. 4: Wait 4 billion years.

You heathens do things so slowly. It takes a week and someone needs to find the apple snake. /s

Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#27

Post by bloopernova »

lostlogin wrote: post #26
bloopernova wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1: Place 10e9 x ingredients on surface of habitable zone planet around young star. 2: Agitate water via tidal action, allow small amounts to dry and flood multiple times. 3: Add sunlight and electrical storms. 4: Wait 4 billion years.

You heathens do things so slowly. It takes a week and someone needs to find the apple snake. /s

For a given value of "week" ;)

Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#28

Post by cybersandwich »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #20

Lead poisoning is quite common in suburban and urban areas, when houses / buildings are demolished. There's a huge plume of lead and asbestos dust that is generated, even if the contractor is making some effort to wet the site. If a building or home in your area is being demolished? Don't open your windows, and don't go outside without a well-fitting dust mask. Never attend a building demolition event. Contractors an…

>if they are stupid enough to inspect

That's sadly true. There is no requirement to test; there is only a requirement to abate if you know its there.

A friend of mine had a contractor say "those look like asbestos tiles, but you havne't tested them right ;) ;) ? If I dont know they are asbestos I can do this job for $X. Otherwise it will be $X + $5K so I can do abatement"

Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#29

Post by bell-cot »

zug_zug wrote: post #4

It's really scary how a tiny amount of a mineral can permanently damage the human mind. I have to admit there's a part of me that almost wants to be skeptical, that mg of a rock could overcome the wonderous self-aware human mind. Every so often I have to remind that skeptical piece of me that it's an idiot and that every human alive is wildly fragile to any number of elements and chemicals. ------ Onto the article, i…

> If I ran a country, I'd collect health data on all my towns (perhaps blood tests of 1% of the population each year).

And maybe flag 0.1% of your population for lots of medical testing, for their whole lives. Partly to catch unsuspected stuff, partly to have really solid baseline statistics.

And if some of those those tests are widely know to be less-than-pleasant (bone marrow sampling, colonoscopy, etc.), and the busybodies & hypochondriacs find it easy to get on "the list" - that may increase citizen satisfaction with your heath care system. Both in those with more-is-better mindsets, and those too quick to imagine that the forbidden fruit is sweeter.

Re: Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study

#30

Post by wcoenen »

01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #9
zug_zug wrote: post #4

It's really scary how a tiny amount of a mineral can permanently damage the human mind. I have to admit there's a part of me that almost wants to be skeptical, that mg of a rock could overcome the wonderous self-aware human mind. Every so often I have to remind that skeptical piece of me that it's an idiot and that every human alive is wildly fragile to any number of elements and chemicals. ------ Onto the article, i…

Well as they say, an entire human body is just > Water (35 L), Carbon (20 kg), Ammonia (4 L), Lime (1.5 kg), Phosphorous (800 g), Salt (250 g), Saltpeter (100 g), Sulfur (80 g), Fluorine (7.5 g), Iron (5 g), Silicon (3 g) and trace amounts of fifteen other elements. (The amounts are off somewhat but you get the idea)

This list is a mix of chemical substances (e.g. water), categories of substances (e.g. salt) and elements (e.g. carbon), so it doesn't really make sense. It would make more sense to stick to elements, e.g. list hydrogen and oxygen instead of water.

Also, ammonia is very toxic and only exists in trace amounts in the body.

Apparently it's a quote from the manga series Fullmetal alchemist.

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