Millions of lives and $Ts in health damage has been done and continues to be done by lead[0]. And it was largely avoidable because the dangers were known.
99 years ago the League of Nations signed a treaty banning indoor leaded paint. The US, of course, declined to join and it took another 50 years before it took action. Concerns were raised about leaded gasoline, industry steamrolled the science.
And it was just a couple of months ago that the final country (Algeria) stopped producing leaded consumer road fuel.
As many as 500,000 US children (2.5%) under 6 years have BLLs ≥5 µg/dL. Each lead-exposed child costs an estimated $5600 in medical and special educational services.7 Lead exposure-related cognitive impairments cost an estimated $50.9 billion annually in lost US economic productivity.6
a) Leaded aviation fuel, an absolutely KNOWN hazard, has been given a pass for literal DECADES.
b) At some point you have to just put your foot down. Ban the sale leaded gas using planes after 1/1/2022. Grandfather in the old planes.
c) Ban the sale of leaded gas to fill planes with changes in registrations after 1/1/2023.
d) Ban the sale of leaded gas period after 1/1/2025.
Industry has been given (more) than enough time to solve this - and does not care.
I live near an airport, with a pregnant wife and a young child. The total hassle it is to deal with just old lead paint if you try and follow code is rediculous, but they still have planes flying over burning LEADED fuel!! WHY?
Most planes don't need leaded gas. Jet-A / Diesel etc can also be used in planes. And yes, I understand small, old GA planes may be impacted, but this has been on the radar for decades now.
"There is no known safe blood lead concentration; even blood lead concentrations as low as 5 µg/dL may be associated with decreased intelligence in children, behavioural difficulties and learning problems. As lead exposure increases, the range and severity of symptoms and effects also increase."
We've know much longer than that. From around 20 BC
"Water conducted through earthen pipes is more wholesome than that through lead; indeed that conveyed in lead must be injurious, because from it white lead [PbCO3, lead carbonate] is obtained, and this is said to be injurious to the human system. Hence, if what is generated from it is pernicious, there can be no doubt that itself cannot be a wholesome body. This may be verified by observing the workers in lead, who are of a pallid colour; for in casting lead, the fumes from it fixing on the different members, and daily burning them, destroy the vigour of the blood; water should therefore on no account be conducted in leaden pipes if we are desirous that it should be wholesome. That the flavour of that conveyed in earthen pipes is better, is shewn at our daily meals, for all those whose tables are furnished with silver vessels, nevertheless use those made of earth, from the purity of the flavour being preserved in them" - Virtuvius VIII.6.10-11
And yet we still have people making the "but the science on climate change wasn't and still isn't absolutely definitive" defense of Michael Crichton in a different thread yesterday.
Climate change denialism is the lead poisoning denialism of the modern era. You can actually see the denialism happening in real-time with actual posters here on HN, this is the same way it worked back then, this is how people delude themselves into thinking they're making a scholarly defense of "facts and the scientific process" when in reality they're just buying into industry propaganda designed to play on that instinct.
Nobody need wonder how it might have happened, it's happening right before your own eyes in these very threads.
> Each lead-exposed child costs an estimated $5600 in medical and special educational services.7 Lead exposure-related cognitive impairments cost an estimated $50.9 billion annually in lost US economic productivity
we have a similar issue going on now with hormone disrupters in basically in most hygienic products (shampoo, body wash), containers, beauty products. it's causing a lot of issues and there are studies showing this recently, it was connected to sudden deaths each year. we need an overhaul. if this was a bug or a glitch in some software it would have been fixed in a few weeks
In the US avgas (which has similar lead content to pre-phaseout automotive gasoline) is 0.14% of gasoline usage and declining at about 5%/year.
Fuel supplied lead is a 99.86% solved problem which is solving itself.
Congress has been funding a program to develop lead free fuel which can safely power aviation piston engines, it is ongoing. Intermediate results are largely not available because it is required to protect all commercial entities participating. https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/avgas/
Reminds me of the German that invented pulling nitrogen out of the air to be used in fertilizers, saving hundreds of millions of lives. WW1 rolls around and he invents gas warfare.
This article's understandably very critical of the man but is there much in the way of hard evidence he knew just how dangerous these inventions were and wilfully ignored the risks? Geninely asking, it just feels like the article is a bit of a hatchet job.
Nobody's disputing that his inventions were awful in the long run for humanity and the Earth but it seems a little harsh to criticise someone for lacking the gift of prophecy. As far as I'm aware we only figured out how harmful CFCs were for the environment in the 1970s for example.
Household lead paint is still allowed in much of the world. India only banned* it in 2016(it is still poorly regulated, so still widely used). China the same in 2020.
If it hadn't been for leaded fuel, lead paint, football / TBI, my parents smoking, and getting rolled off a changing table as a baby, I could have been intelligent. sigh
My eldest brother always joked that he lost IQ points when the doctors used forceps on him during birth. Jokes on him, the lead and the maternal smoking would've done him in anyway.
> As many as 500,000 US children (2.5%) under 6 years have BLLs ≥5 µg/dL. Each lead-exposed child costs an estimated $5600 in medical and special educational services.7 Lead exposure-related cognitive impairments cost an estimated $50.9 billion annually in lost US economic productivity.6
I'm curious what was worse, leaded gasoline or Diesel? I was reading about France's phase out of leaded gasoline and saw that it happened relatively late with unleaded appearing on the market in 1990 and leaded gasoline being banned in 1995 only.
But before that, it seems that Diesel had started getting popular in the 80s and 90s.
Having said that, a lot of countries do a poor job of lead control/monitoring in plumbing/water distribution.
> There is growing evidence that the scale of problems with lead in drinking water has been under-estimated in Europe, due to inadequate monitoring. Particularly in the older districts of towns and cities, where lead pipes can be common
It’s quite a rabbit hole to go through. Distribution pipes, pH, corrosion control, service lines, internal piping, leaching for PVC even, interior fittings, flow rates, consumption patterns…
I think most people are not aware how bad it used to be. I went to India a couple years ago, and could taste the air pollution from the traffic on the tip of my tongue. Its horrendous. Give you headaches bad. I don't think they use catalytic converters over there on majority of cars and motorcycles. Once electric goes mainstream, it will seriously boost and extend the quality of life of billions of people.
What about shooting ranges? Heard hickock45 on Youtube crunching as he walked and realized that the gravel I was seeing was actually spent casings. Maybe another reason not to take the kids to the range. Do COVID-mitigation factors help with lead dust/aerosols?
Yes, gunsmoke does contain lead and it's not something you want to breathe in. Surgical masks will do very little, N99 or respirators will do better. However it's best practice to always wash your hands and preferably shower after shooting.
This also applies to handling or reloading ammo. Primers are lead-based compounds (generally lead styphnate) and most bullets are either soft lead or jacketed lead. If you are handling ammo, bullets, or spent casings, wash your hands after.
There is obviously a continuum of exposure and different routes of exposure here. Lead on your hands isn't ideal but if you don't touch your face or eat with dirty hands, kinda whatever. With smoke, you breathe it in simply by being there. You definitely want to look at the airflow on an indoor range, there should be a considerable amount of "whoosh" and palpable airflow, and even then it's probably still a low or moderate amount of exposure. Outdoors ranges will have even less exposure, but probably still not zero, you're still right near the breech.
And yeah generally kids are more susceptible to lead exposure than adults. Not that it's great for adults but it will truly mess up your development to get significant exposure as a child.
"orange lava soap" with the pumice in it is also better than just regular hand soap, as it's more abrasive and will do a better job scraping the lead off.
Electric cars are helping in two ways: they move the carbon emissions from our playgrounds to the powerplants, and also said powerplants will have better filtering and efficiency than a mobile unit optimised for weight and dimensions.
Improved childhood nutrition outstrips the negative effect of lead poisoning. IQs may have been lower than their potential but still higher than in previous generations. Also, the impacts of lead contamination are not evenly distributed through populations.
"For this reason, most of the estimated 7 million tons of lead burned in gasoline in the United States in the twentieth century remains--in the soil, air and water and in the bodies of living organisms. Worldwide, it is estimated that modern man's lead exposure is 300 to 500 times greater than background or natural levels."
I am a member of my old school's alumni orgnization and at our meetups, nearly all the other alumni are 17-25 years younger than me, and frighteningly intelligent, and I am very much hoping that lead poisoning accounts for this...
This is highly tangential, but abuse of a fetus needs to be a federal crime. My mother drank caffeine and smoked while pregnant, and I will live with the consequences for the rest of my life. It is unforgiveable.
[+] [-] thinkcontext|4 years ago|reply
99 years ago the League of Nations signed a treaty banning indoor leaded paint. The US, of course, declined to join and it took another 50 years before it took action. Concerns were raised about leaded gasoline, industry steamrolled the science.
And it was just a couple of months ago that the final country (Algeria) stopped producing leaded consumer road fuel.
For a good history see
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/secret-history-lea...
[0] An Update on Childhood Lead Poisoning https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5645046/
As many as 500,000 US children (2.5%) under 6 years have BLLs ≥5 µg/dL. Each lead-exposed child costs an estimated $5600 in medical and special educational services.7 Lead exposure-related cognitive impairments cost an estimated $50.9 billion annually in lost US economic productivity.6
[+] [-] slownews45|4 years ago|reply
a) Leaded aviation fuel, an absolutely KNOWN hazard, has been given a pass for literal DECADES.
b) At some point you have to just put your foot down. Ban the sale leaded gas using planes after 1/1/2022. Grandfather in the old planes.
c) Ban the sale of leaded gas to fill planes with changes in registrations after 1/1/2023.
d) Ban the sale of leaded gas period after 1/1/2025.
Industry has been given (more) than enough time to solve this - and does not care.
I live near an airport, with a pregnant wife and a young child. The total hassle it is to deal with just old lead paint if you try and follow code is rediculous, but they still have planes flying over burning LEADED fuel!! WHY?
Most planes don't need leaded gas. Jet-A / Diesel etc can also be used in planes. And yes, I understand small, old GA planes may be impacted, but this has been on the radar for decades now.
"There is no known safe blood lead concentration; even blood lead concentrations as low as 5 µg/dL may be associated with decreased intelligence in children, behavioural difficulties and learning problems. As lead exposure increases, the range and severity of symptoms and effects also increase."
[+] [-] zionic|4 years ago|reply
Not only that, industry paid for "science" that hid the dangers. People today however seem to strangely think this doesn't happen anymore.
[+] [-] bawolff|4 years ago|reply
"Water conducted through earthen pipes is more wholesome than that through lead; indeed that conveyed in lead must be injurious, because from it white lead [PbCO3, lead carbonate] is obtained, and this is said to be injurious to the human system. Hence, if what is generated from it is pernicious, there can be no doubt that itself cannot be a wholesome body. This may be verified by observing the workers in lead, who are of a pallid colour; for in casting lead, the fumes from it fixing on the different members, and daily burning them, destroy the vigour of the blood; water should therefore on no account be conducted in leaden pipes if we are desirous that it should be wholesome. That the flavour of that conveyed in earthen pipes is better, is shewn at our daily meals, for all those whose tables are furnished with silver vessels, nevertheless use those made of earth, from the purity of the flavour being preserved in them" - Virtuvius VIII.6.10-11
[+] [-] paulmd|4 years ago|reply
Climate change denialism is the lead poisoning denialism of the modern era. You can actually see the denialism happening in real-time with actual posters here on HN, this is the same way it worked back then, this is how people delude themselves into thinking they're making a scholarly defense of "facts and the scientific process" when in reality they're just buying into industry propaganda designed to play on that instinct.
Nobody need wonder how it might have happened, it's happening right before your own eyes in these very threads.
[+] [-] downrightmike|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andrepd|4 years ago|reply
It's quite disturbing to phrase things this way.
[+] [-] adminscoffee|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] selimthegrim|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] twofornone|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] orangepurple|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Tagbert|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jws|4 years ago|reply
Fuel supplied lead is a 99.86% solved problem which is solving itself.
Congress has been funding a program to develop lead free fuel which can safely power aviation piston engines, it is ongoing. Intermediate results are largely not available because it is required to protect all commercial entities participating. https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/avgas/
Here is a nice article from someone involved in avgas lead removal: https://www.avweb.com/insider/going-to-the-moon-was-easy-com...
[+] [-] gengelbro|4 years ago|reply
Essentially hobby aviation is completely stuck in the 1970s and getting the engines modernized would be "cost prohibitive".
Since wealthy people still want to play around in planes they get to rain lead on our heads.
[+] [-] __turbobrew__|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xbadc0de5|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zionic|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ngold|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mhh__|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BoxOfRain|4 years ago|reply
Nobody's disputing that his inventions were awful in the long run for humanity and the Earth but it seems a little harsh to criticise someone for lacking the gift of prophecy. As far as I'm aware we only figured out how harmful CFCs were for the environment in the 1970s for example.
[+] [-] postalrat|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thesausageking|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] purple_ferret|4 years ago|reply
*reduced to max level to 90 ppm
[+] [-] TimTheTinker|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrfusion|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] comeonseriously|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scionthefly|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrtranscendence|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sul_tasto|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thinkcontext|4 years ago|reply
> As many as 500,000 US children (2.5%) under 6 years have BLLs ≥5 µg/dL. Each lead-exposed child costs an estimated $5600 in medical and special educational services.7 Lead exposure-related cognitive impairments cost an estimated $50.9 billion annually in lost US economic productivity.6
[+] [-] nicolas_t|4 years ago|reply
But before that, it seems that Diesel had started getting popular in the 80s and 90s.
[+] [-] Scoundreller|4 years ago|reply
Having said that, a lot of countries do a poor job of lead control/monitoring in plumbing/water distribution.
> There is growing evidence that the scale of problems with lead in drinking water has been under-estimated in Europe, due to inadequate monitoring. Particularly in the older districts of towns and cities, where lead pipes can be common
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/Hoekstra%202010...
It’s quite a rabbit hole to go through. Distribution pipes, pH, corrosion control, service lines, internal piping, leaching for PVC even, interior fittings, flow rates, consumption patterns…
[+] [-] uncertainrhymes|4 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
[+] [-] dukeofdoom|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] azinman2|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] troyvit|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tonyedgecombe|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NoGravitas|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JabavuAdams|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paulmd|4 years ago|reply
This also applies to handling or reloading ammo. Primers are lead-based compounds (generally lead styphnate) and most bullets are either soft lead or jacketed lead. If you are handling ammo, bullets, or spent casings, wash your hands after.
There is obviously a continuum of exposure and different routes of exposure here. Lead on your hands isn't ideal but if you don't touch your face or eat with dirty hands, kinda whatever. With smoke, you breathe it in simply by being there. You definitely want to look at the airflow on an indoor range, there should be a considerable amount of "whoosh" and palpable airflow, and even then it's probably still a low or moderate amount of exposure. Outdoors ranges will have even less exposure, but probably still not zero, you're still right near the breech.
And yeah generally kids are more susceptible to lead exposure than adults. Not that it's great for adults but it will truly mess up your development to get significant exposure as a child.
"orange lava soap" with the pumice in it is also better than just regular hand soap, as it's more abrasive and will do a better job scraping the lead off.
[+] [-] k__|4 years ago|reply
So, while electric cars might not be the perfect ecological solution, it might at bring us direct health benefits in the long run.
[+] [-] loa_in_|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Clubber|4 years ago|reply
https://ourworldindata.org/intelligence
[+] [-] djur|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] intrasight|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 8bitsrule|4 years ago|reply
"The Secret History of Lead" (Nation, original gone) [https://web.archive.org/web/20090208070616/https://www.thena...]
The part I'll never forget reading (page 2):
"For this reason, most of the estimated 7 million tons of lead burned in gasoline in the United States in the twentieth century remains--in the soil, air and water and in the bodies of living organisms. Worldwide, it is estimated that modern man's lead exposure is 300 to 500 times greater than background or natural levels."
[+] [-] wly_cdgr|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vr46|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tediousdemise|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobmaxup|4 years ago|reply