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Lead Exposure Kills Hundreds of Thousands of Adults Every Year in the US, Study Finds (theguardian.com)
Bruce66423 shares a report from The Guardian: Last week, a massive new study concluded that lead is 10 times more dangerous than thought, and that past exposure now hastens one in every five U.S. deaths. Researchers at four North American universities, led by Bruce Lanphear, of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, studied the fate of 14,289 people whose blood had been tested in an official U.S. survey between 1988 and 1994. Four fifths of them had harbored levels of the toxic metal below what has, hitherto, been thought safe. The study found that deaths, especially from cardiovascular disease, increased markedly with exposure, even at the lowest levels. It concluded that lead kills 412,000 people a year -- accounting for 18% of all U.S. mortality, not much less than the 483,000 who perish as a result of smoking. The study has been published in the Lancet Public Health journal.
Not too interesting. Small doses give a higher response than a linear dose response would indicate, nothing more, nothing less. Magical water memory need not apply.
That's not exactly what they say. What they say is that 1/10th of a dose does not have 1/10th of the effect, as would be expected, but way more than 1/10th.
It's still a far cry from the homeopathetic claim that 1/10th of a dose has ten times the effect.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It explains quite nicely how a small amount of lead can cause both serious problems and at the same time mass lead exposure did not destroy society.
Nothing of the sort.
A small dose is proportionally more harmful than a larger dose, not more harmful in an absolute sense. Basically what the study says is double the dose does not result in double the damage.
If you've been exposed to lead, exposing yourself to more lead will not improve your situation... so put down that paint smoothie.
=Smidge=
The fact that for a long time so many societies had shorter lifespans seems to be irrelevant, doesn't it?
Violent Crime dropped in the US after removing lead from gasoline. After research, we have found out how lead affects the chemistry in the brain. The link actually exists and the science backs it up. Lead does nasty things over a lifetime.
Place something witty here
They didn't start removing the lead from gasoline, they just stopped intentionally adding it.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Quite. In fact I recall a study done analyzing violent crime rates around the world that found in every country violent crime started climbing ~20 years after the introduction of leaded gasoline, and began falling ~20 years after it was eliminated. Basically, if you grew up breathing lead fumes, you were more likely to commit violent crimes as an adult. The fact that every country introduced and banned leaded gasoline at different times helps to eliminate most other confounding factors that might have been responsible.
Not at all surprising as a social observation, considering we know that on an individual level lead exposure in childhood tends to boost aggressiveness while reducing impulse control.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Then I guess we should all be really glad water doesn't remember how we mistreat it by abusing it to flush down our shit. Just imagine what potentially potentised diarrheatical effect this would have on all of us!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Lead is but one of the heavy metals that coal fired plants spew into the environment, in massive amounts. Compared to them, nuclear plants are decidedly clean.
This is all true, but lead is a very small part of that problem. Only 41 tonnes of lead from coal in 2014, compared to around 100 tonnes from leaded avgas, and over 100,000 tonnes/year back when cars used leaded gasoline.
https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-e...
hey died with the Roman Empire, some scientists even say
Crappy theory, originally spread by the germans, and already debunked multiple times. The Roman Empire ended because of the barbarian invasions, not lead exposure, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted for more than 500 years.