HN Reader

> If you know there’s lead somewhere in your community, try to get involved and push for programs that limit its removal.

Programs that to have it removed? I think.

Also what would it be like to go through life knowing you had lead disrupting your brain.

What methodology is used for lead testing ? I eared about blood sampling but that quote from the article make me wonder the effectiveness:

> the half-life of lead in the blood (meaning the amount of time needed for the concentration to drop to half) is relatively short, at only 28 days, that’s not the same as the half-life in the body. Some of the lead in the blood will not be eliminated, but it will actually go into the soft tissue, i.e. kidneys, liver, brain, where the half-life is a few months, and more annoyingly, into the bones, where the half-life is between 10 to 30 years. What’s more, from here, lead can leach back into the bloodstream, from where it can once again get into the soft tissue and cause more damage

Interestingly, Lead is still used in fuel for small aircraft. It's called avgas 100LL (Low Lead). I do worry about the effects of the fuel, given lead's health effects at low exposure levels.

"The answer is high-octane gasoline!"[1]

[1] https://youtu.be/yiJFVs1gZqo?t=845

There's a "acceptable minimum level of lead" in most processed foods such as baby food.

This is because food cannot be heavily processed without some heavy metals leeching in, according to a food safety guy who is a long time friend.

It is completely mind boggling we let that happen.

> “even if we were to completely stop mining for and using lead (which we aren’t, since the lead-acid battery market is projected to increase in the next years”

I’m surprised by this. Modern cars (EVs, at least) have started replacing their 12V lead batteries with Li-ion, which are more durable, store much more energy, and of course are less toxic.

But in any case, isn’t the one advantage of lead-acid batteries their recyclability? Don’t 99%+ of lead batteries get recycled into new lead batteries?

Surely there can’t be all that much new lead being mined for batteries?

There are people who think it suddenly stopped being bad for your brain? They must be chewing on paint.

I've always wondered about whether I've been affected by this due to various known sources that I (mis)handled in times past.

Are there any pragmatic steps I can take to reduce/reverse any effect?

Did you know, the world still mines more lead now than it did 50 years ago, at the peak of 'put lead in everything' mania?

To me, this says that we still put lead in too many things. Lead is still used for flashing in roofs. It's still used as a mould release when making plastics. It's still used in making dishware. It's still used in bullets.

It's still used for all kinds of things which will one day end up in the environment and someone's drinking water.

This is a great article on the biology of lead exposure.

Unfortunately on the exposure side research wasn’t done and it propagates the myth that lead exposure is only an issue for those with lead pipes or lead paint. It’s true that these are the main sources of severe lead exposure. However the article points out that there is no safe level of exposure to lead and these aren’t the main ways we are exposed to lead in the US anymore.

Today we are mostly exposed by low level contamination and thankfully this usually results in only mildly elevated lead levels. In a toddler sticking things in the mouth this could be almost any object. For adults it is food and drinks and the objects we use to make them.

I know this because my toddler had elevated lead levels even though our neighborhood never had lead paint and our water does not have lead (I tested the water coming out of our faucets).

The US has few laws against lead contamination and they aren’t very stringent and there is little proactive enforcement. This non profit has ended up creating several recalls after reporting their own testing: https://tamararubin.com/category/recall/ Most of the recalls were products marketed for children such as baby bottles. But if a child eats off an adult plate there aren’t any laws against that being contaminated.

Some actions you can take are:

  * test children’s lead levels and your own
  * make sure toddlers aren't playing with old toys (pre 1978 really risky, after 2010 is best)
  * stop buying things that have a prop 65 warning (I know prop 65 isn’t perfect, but it’s often a lead warning).
  * Remove risky objects like the above from your children’s classrooms.
  * For cooking and food and drinks use clear glass, stainless steel, and cast iron
  * avoid processed foods. There are a lot of particulars here about what is most likely to be high in lead. Chocolate, spices, salt, and cassava products are particularly high in heavy metals.

What about lead tape for golf? My putter has a strip of it on the sole. I don’t lick it or anything but is it shedding contaminants constantly?

I take about 20g daily of psyllium husk, i'm worried about lead. Any advice?

Radiation shielding. There's a lot of it in industry involving electron beam processing which produces x-rays. From printing machines using EB set ink, welding, melting, cross-linking, etc. A lot of those machines are lead shielded. Even at particle accelerator labs I've walked past stacks of lead bricks around beam lines (esp around the injector)

Sucks that there's so much use for something so dangerous. Amazing the perils we have both dug up and invented in the pursuit of progress which is ultimately just making money.

>Now, acute effects of lead exposure are pretty clear. If someone were to chomp down on a piece of lead, it would result in seizures, coma, and possibly death.

Tell that to anglers. Chomping down on lead is how to put weights on the line.

I live with children in a very old house. I would love to be able to measure my children's lead exposure and check things like window paint or house dust for lead content to see how big a problem there is.

How do I do that?