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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

#51

Post by nineteen999 »

Tangentially, a bunch of movies have been filmed in and around Broken Hill[1], including Mad Max 2 and 4, Mission Impossible 2, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Wake in Fright, and my personal favourite cheesy Australian B-Movie, Razorback.

The landscape typically lends itself to that kind of dry post-apocalyptic look, however shooting for Mad Max: Fury Road was relocated to Namibia[2] as heavy rains had caused the area to break out into bloom.

[1] https://www.brokenhill.nsw.gov.au/Services/Filming-in-Broken...

[2] https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/asset/99353-mad-m...

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

#52

Post by mattpallissard »

Genuine question. Wouldn't it be more efficient to check the levels of lead in the people periodically? If a sparrow has high levels of lead then you still need to check the people.

It seems like it would be fewer steps, fewer tests, and less messing around by making testing more available to the people.

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

#53

Post by moffkalast »

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)

Well yes and a processor is just a bunch of sand. It's the state and arrangement that matters.

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

#55

Post by card_zero »

moffkalast wrote: post #53
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)

Well yes and a processor is just a bunch of sand. It's the state and arrangement that matters.

Bags of mostly water, poking at rectangles of sand ... decorated with a bunch of information.

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

#56

Post by bobthepanda »

tehjoker wrote: post #41
FredPret wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know man. The US government spends in a couple of months what the biggest companies are worth in total. According to this [0] Uncle Sam is obligated to spend 6.3T this year. That's 500B per month. Compare to the market cap of mammoth companies [1]. ExxonMobil, UnitedHealth, and Mastercard are all in the top 20 US companies and worth around one month of government spending. How can a whale be beholden to a fle…

The government is designed for rich people from its foundation, it's a cozy revolving door for the elites and functions to repress popular movements. Officials identify with business and owners and can pick up do-nothing or interesting jobs after their government services. US elections are some of the most expensive in the world and politicians rely on donations to win their campaigns. The connections between busines…

Right. It is worth noting that the total allowable cost of the recent UK election was 54k per seat per party, meaning that a political party could only spend 34M GBP contesting every Parliamentary seat.

It would only take the top three House fundraisers to outstrip this number: https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/fundraising-t...

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

#57

Post by moffkalast »

card_zero wrote: post #55
moffkalast wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yes and a processor is just a bunch of sand. It's the state and arrangement that matters.

Bags of mostly water, poking at rectangles of sand ... decorated with a bunch of information.

Ugly giant bags of mostly water!

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

#58

Post by yareally »

smeagull wrote: post #49

People consider Sparrows pests?

There are many kinds of sparrows, but the one people usually refer to as a pest is the Eurasian House Sparrow. Can be found on 6 continents, reproduces quickly, and are gregarious (most other sparrows don't live in groups).

I find their antics to be interesting, but they're aggressive to other birds, especially for nesting sites (and they'll nest anywhere, unlike many of the birds they compete with).

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

#59

Post by Reason077 »

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…

Seems crazy that you’d build a town so close to the mine (or a smelter so close to a town). It’s not as if Australia is short on space for building things!

Perhaps it should be a condition of operating a lucrative mining site that you build/subsidise worker’s accommodation at a reasonable enough distance to be free from contamination.

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

#60

Post by 7jjjjjjj »

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?

https://mangadex.org/manga/dd8a907a-3850-4f95-ba03-ba201a839...
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