You Too 'Eat Lead'
Anyone who went to many, many cowboy movies in their youth knows what it means, but an old and traditional shoot-em-up oath was "Eat lead", an announcement that our Hero was about to shoot the snarling villain.
In 1976, lead began to be phased out in gasoline. It was also banned in paints, because lead had been connected with brain damage in children.
Recently, we rediscovered lead in the environment, by way of imported toys. Yes, kids not only suck and chew toys, they also handle them and put their hands into their mouths. Paint, I find, isn't the only way that lead gets inside the kids, and inside you and me. Visiting the Centers for Disease Control website on the subject, I find that lead is a component in plastics generally. Look around at the things you use to cook, eat and serve food. Ooooops, lotsa plastic.
The present executive branch full of corporate shills has brought boom times for anyone who wants to ignore protections of the public, of course. Some independent bodies have remained above that element, and continue doing good work. CDC is one.
Another finding about the lead exposure threat has shown that the effects are showing up later in life, and may be part of our aging population's mental challenges. As a member of that older generation, I take this seriously.
We can protect our children if we have information about threats like lead paint, and the media have been very good about the toys that have been imported, and found to be dangerous.
The rest of the information I've been digging up isn't front page, headlined news.
The harmful effects of lead, who knows, maybe one of these days we'll have scientists who proclaim it was really good for us - if we are still in GoPerv dominated times, they'll immediately be put in charge of kids' health.
From my understanding to date, I am going to look more closely at my use of lead content in food prep.
Disclosure: I am not being paid by our petroleum industries, or even George Soros. I am advising you readers to take charge of getting informed, as we cannot depend on this occupied White House to provide basic needs, much less supervision of our manufacturing/importing industries.
The 'eat lead' element is in power, but their End Times is less than a year away.
Diane has been doing a daily countdown, which makes me happier every day.
In 1976, lead began to be phased out in gasoline. It was also banned in paints, because lead had been connected with brain damage in children.
Recently, we rediscovered lead in the environment, by way of imported toys. Yes, kids not only suck and chew toys, they also handle them and put their hands into their mouths. Paint, I find, isn't the only way that lead gets inside the kids, and inside you and me. Visiting the Centers for Disease Control website on the subject, I find that lead is a component in plastics generally. Look around at the things you use to cook, eat and serve food. Ooooops, lotsa plastic.
Paint: Lead may be found in the paint on toys. It was banned in house paint, on products marketed to children, and in dishes or cookware in the United States in 1978; however, it is still widely used in other countries and therefore can still be found on imported toys. It may also be found on older toys made in the United States before the ban.
Plastic: The use of lead in plastics has not been banned. It softens the plastic and makes it more flexible so that it can go back to its original shape. It may also be used in plastic toys to stabilize molecules from heat. When the plastic is exposed to substances such as sunlight, air, and detergents the chemical bond between the lead and plastics breaks down and forms a dust. (Emphasis added.)
The present executive branch full of corporate shills has brought boom times for anyone who wants to ignore protections of the public, of course. Some independent bodies have remained above that element, and continue doing good work. CDC is one.
Another finding about the lead exposure threat has shown that the effects are showing up later in life, and may be part of our aging population's mental challenges. As a member of that older generation, I take this seriously.
Studying delayed effects in people is difficult, because they generally must be followed for a long time. Research with lead is easier, because scientists can measure the amount that has accumulated in the shinbone over decades and get a read on how much lead a person has been exposed to.
Lead in the blood, by contrast, reflects recent exposure. Virtually all Americans have lead in their blood, but the amounts are far lower today than in the past.
The big reason for the drop: the phasing out of lead in gasoline from 1976 to 1991. Because of that and accompanying measures, the average lead level in the blood of American adults fell 30 percent by 1980 and about 80 percent by 1990.
(snip)
The researchers estimated each person's lifetime dose by scanning their shinbones for lead. Then they gave each one a battery of mental ability tests.
In brief, the scientists found that the higher the lifetime lead dose, the poorer the performance across a wide variety of mental functions, like verbal and visual memory and language ability. From low to high dose, the difference in mental functioning was about the equivalent of aging by two to six years.
We can protect our children if we have information about threats like lead paint, and the media have been very good about the toys that have been imported, and found to be dangerous.
The rest of the information I've been digging up isn't front page, headlined news.
The harmful effects of lead, who knows, maybe one of these days we'll have scientists who proclaim it was really good for us - if we are still in GoPerv dominated times, they'll immediately be put in charge of kids' health.
From my understanding to date, I am going to look more closely at my use of lead content in food prep.
Disclosure: I am not being paid by our petroleum industries, or even George Soros. I am advising you readers to take charge of getting informed, as we cannot depend on this occupied White House to provide basic needs, much less supervision of our manufacturing/importing industries.
The 'eat lead' element is in power, but their End Times is less than a year away.
Diane has been doing a daily countdown, which makes me happier every day.
Labels: Bush Legacy, Food Safety, Free Trade, oil companies, Oversight
posted by Ruth at 8:45 AM
1 Comments:
Remember all the scary stories bout how bad things would be once lead is out of gasoline? "Your engine will mel!", "Your valves will burn up!"
And the piggies that made the lead: Ethyl Corporation (now Albemarle) used to dump drums of sodium waste into the Gulf of Mexico, which would explode when caught in shrimp nets. And DuPont, in Deepwater, NJ, used to have their effluent pipe into the Delaware River, so they could actually pollute in DE, since at that location the entire river is DE territory. That DuPont site is so polluted that DuPont will never be able to leave it!
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