
The fatal attraction of lead - Libertatea
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29568505
======
kirsebaer
Lead paint and lead gasoline are shocking examples of corporate misbehavior.

Interior lead paint was banned in many European countries by the 1920s because
of the obvious health risks. But in the US the lead manufactures responded to
health concerns with "Dutch Boy" lead paint, deliberately marketed to appear
safe enough for a child to use. They actually had advertising campaigns
promoting lead paint for childrens' toys, cribs, and bedrooms. Household lead
paint not banned in the US until 1978, and it now a major concern and cost for
people living in older homes.

The health risks of leaded gasoline were also obvious to many, and ethanol was
known as a safe alternative anti-knock additive in the 1920s. General Motors
and Alfred P. Sloan tried to hide the risks of lead paint via front groups and
manipulation of regulatory agencies.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLoixnECec0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLoixnECec0)
Video about Dutch Boy paint advertising to children.

[http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/04/why-it-
too...](http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/04/why-it-took-decades-
of-blaming-parents-before-we-banned-lead-paint/275169/) David Rosner is the
Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and a professor of
history at Columbia University. Gerald Markowitz is a Distinguished Professor
of History at John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center. Their most recent
book is Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of Americaís Children.

[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/07/violent...](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/07/violent-
crime-lead-poisoning-british-export) Yes, lead poisoning could really be a
cause of violent crime, by George Monbiot

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/03/lead-paint-
lawsuit-...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/03/lead-paint-lawsuit-
california-tobacco-industry_n_3696533.html) Lead Paint Makers Could Face The
Same Fate As Big Tobacco

[http://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-
lead](http://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead) The Secret History
of Lead

~~~
_delirium
Interesting, I hadn't realized the first bans were as early as the 1920s.
Researching a bit now, it seems like concerns were raised by at least the 19th
century, and were pretty solid by the early 20th, which is not at all how I've
heard it presented previously. I had previously assumed that it was not really
known to science until the 1960s or so, which seems untrue.

From what I've found in some quick digging, it seems like the early bans were
driven by workplace-safety concerns (rather than residential safety), as
unions agitated to ban dangerous substances that had been causing health
problems for painters and other workers who were exposed to it (e.g. through
sanding). There was a 1921 convention of the International Labor Organization
to that effect, but the U.S. didn't sign:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lead_%28Painting%29_Conv...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lead_%28Painting%29_Convention,_1921)

~~~
danielweber
Lead paint was recommended by the Federal government and required for many
projects for much of the 20th century. This is a (admittedly biased, just look
at the URL) page discussing some examples of the history:

[http://www.leadlawsuits.com/index.php?s=699](http://www.leadlawsuits.com/index.php?s=699)

~~~
Shivetya
This link is very informative with regards to lead paint, it wasn't some
corporate abuse, there were compelling reasons to use lead paint and hence it
was accepted. It even notes that it was rarely found in interior paints by the
forties, it persisted in outdoor paints because it could withstand the
elements.

That strength was why it was used in the first place, you could wash it and
the concerns of that age were communicable diseases that were slowed or
prevented by washing, which the previous interior covering being wallpaper was
not so durable and was suspected of easily harboring disease through pores and
the glue.

Top it off with the US Government basically telling you to use it. Many of the
health concerns for lead use were only seen as manufacturing dangers, end
products were not considered unsafe.

------
tobinfricke
Surprisingly, the fuel used in piston-powered aircraft generally still
contains lead:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas)

Wikipedia says that the amount of lead in 100LL avgas is "about 4 times what
was in pre-1975 leaded automotive grade gasoline."

As a private pilot, yes I do feel a bit guilty that my hobby adds lead to the
environment ...

~~~
SpacemanSpiff
Thankfully, the general aviation industry in the US is moving away from leaded
avgas. [http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-
News/2014/September/0...](http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-
News/2014/September/08/FAA-selects-four-unleaded-fuels-for-testing)

~~~
tobinfricke
Unfortunately (and I say this as a member of the organization), I feel like
the AOPA is fighting - or at least dragging its feet - on the issue, since
transition to any other fuel is likely to add some kind of expense or
inconvenience.

------
dctoedt
I wonder if leaded gasoline is playing any kind of role in the continued
unrest in the Middle East? FTA:

 _Chronic lead exposure causes depression, headaches, aggression and memory
loss. ...._

 _[M]any academics now believe leaded petrol was responsible for a global
crime wave that peaked in the 1990s. ..._

 _Amazingly, a handful of countries - Iraq, Yemen, Burma, North Korea -
continue to use leaded petrol._

~~~
idlewords
"Unrest in the Middle East" is a blanket phrase so broad as to be meaningless.
What specific conflict do you have in mind?

Keep in mind that the number of vehicles per capita is much lower in Iraq and
Yemen (the only two countries you mention) than in the United States.

Your comment rubs me the wrong way since it speaks to a mindset where
complicated geopolitical problems can be solved or explained by a simple hack.
Don't use lead! Peace treaties to follow.

~~~
ggreer
There's no law of the universe that says big problems must have complicated
solutions. Checklists have prevented countless mistakes in aviation and
medical care. Scurvy plagued sailors for centuries, but the cure was vitamin
C. Until the mid-1800's, doctors killed many of their patients from infection
because they didn't wash their hands after performing autopsies.[1]

Of course, banning lead in those countries will have a beneficial effect, but
I don't think it will quell much unrest. The middle east was unstable well
before the introduction of leaded gasoline. And as you said, car ownership
isn't as common there.

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis)

------
4ad
In Romania they used to still use lead plumbing until the early 2000s! As a
kid, I loved that stuff, so maleable, you could do so many things from it, and
it melted so easily. I loved to melt it and cast into into various shapes.

~~~
johnward
I remember chewing on some lead fishing sinkers once or twice before my dad
told me I was an idiot and playing with mercury one time when I broke a
thermometer. I just wonder what "safe" things we use daily that we'll look
back and say wtf were we thinking?

~~~
ianlevesque
Flame retardant furniture and children's clothing is a likely candidate.

------
RankingMember
Various causes have been credited for the decline of violent crime in the
1990s in the U.S., one of which was the legalization of abortion in 1973. I
didn't realize violent crime declined globally at the same time. That makes me
think that perhaps leaded gas is a more likely culprit.

Untreated ADHD has also been linked to violent crime, so with any luck we'll
continue the downward trend in violent incidence as the treatment of ADHD
continues.

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3398051/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3398051/)

------
lysium
I'm still impressed by the seemingly high correlation between gasoline lead
exposure and violent crimes.

~~~
piquadrat
Mother Jones had a very interesting story about the topic a while ago:

[http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-
li...](http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-
gasoline)

------
frik
The european union (EU) banned lead gasoline in 2000 (~ 2005 "lead free"), USA
already in 1978.

Many airplanes can still legally use lead fuel.

source (german):
[http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorenbenzin#Verbleites_Benzin](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorenbenzin#Verbleites_Benzin)

~~~
masklinn
> The european union (EU) banned lead gasoline in 2000 (~ 2005 "lead free"),
> USA already in 1978.

These dates are to completely different events.

The US _started_ phasing out leaded gas in the mid-70s (the EPA announced its
first regs in 1975, effective 1978) but didn't complete the phaseout until
1996.

The EU did start and complete its phaseout later (starting in 1981, in part
because of the resistance of some members e.g. France) but a few member states
did so much earlier (Germany started phasing out leaded in 1972 and had
completed its phaseout by 1988).

~~~
blisterpeanuts
Wikipedia[1] lists the U.S. phaseout as having completed in 1995. Some of the
countries mentioned in the BBC article are phasing out leaded gasoline:
Algeria in 2014, Iraq in 2015.

I wonder why it's still even called "unleaded" in the U.S. when you can't even
buy leaded gasoline anymore. Maybe it should just be called gasoline or better
yet, petrol. The commonly used term "gas" is confusing because Americans use
it to refer to liquid refined petroleum fuel i.e. gasoline, yet also to refer
to gaseous substances that include methane and other fossil fuels.

1\.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead)

------
cmatteri
The use of leaded paint indoors and of leaded gasoline were particularly
dangerous, but there are still numerous potential sources of lead exposure,
especially in certain industries, but also for the average person. Exposure
has decreased, but the safe blood lead level has also been reduced as we
become increasingly aware of the harms of sub-clinical lead poisoning.

Two interesting properties of lead's toxicity that weren't mentioned in the
article are its potency and its ability to accumulate. A blood lead level of
10 ug/dL is often listed as a threshold for concern (though for children 5
ug/dL or less is more appropriate). A typical blood volume for an adult is
around 50 dL (according to Wikipedia), so 10 ug/dL would mean that there are
500 ug of lead in your blood. Lead has a density of 11.3 g/cm^3, so 500 ug has
a volume of 44.2 nL. If you have every used a 2 uL pipette, you would have an
idea of how small of a volume 44.2 nL is (for those who haven't, it's
somewhere in the range of a grain of sand
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_%28volume%2...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_%28volume%29)).
Although not all the lead we ingest is absorbed and lead is distributed
throughout various organs, this should give a sense of how potent of a toxin
lead is. Lead is also cleared from the body fairly slowly, so the amount of
exposure per day needed to build up to a toxic level is even lower. These two
properties, combined with the ubiquity of lead in our society, the long
timescales over which it causes harm, and widespread ignorance of or apathy
towards its harms are why I find it a particularly frightening toxin.

One source that could be relevant to some in the HN crowd is electronics
solder. Although Europe banned the use of lead in electronic components and
solder in most applications in 2006 with RoHS, leaded solder is still mostly
legal and common in the US (it looks like CA has partially adopted RoHS
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Substa...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Substances_Directive#North_America)).
It is fairly easy to use leaded hand solder safely, but it is also entirely
plausible that a child with inadequate training or supervision could ingest a
significant amount of lead while soldering, from the small flakes of solder
that accumulate on your workbench, dust, or lead oxides on a sponge. I had no
idea how toxic lead was when I taught myself to solder in high school, and I'm
glad I didn't do it much then for that reason.

I have recently started using Sn96.5Ag3Cu0.5 (lead free) solder, and although
it is somewhat more expensive that leaded solder, with proper tools, plated
PCBs, and correct technique it is really quite easy to use. I have some
aggressive rosin-activated flux on hand (that requires cleanup) but I haven't
needed to use it so far. I would highly recommend trying out Sn96.5Ag3Cu0.5,
especially if you're sharing a workspace with children, who are far more
susceptible to lead for various reasons.

A fair number of materials that you might encounter can contain lead as an
additive, including plastic, brass, bronze, steel
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_machining_steel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_machining_steel)),
and metal/hobby/industrial/artist paints. It's always worth looking up what
hazardous compounds may be present in something before putting a grinder to it
(again, something I hadn't mastered in high school).

More along the lines of the article, here is another particularly egregious
historical use of lead as a color in candy. In this case the compound, lead
(II) chromate, also contained hexavalent chromium, another particularly
hazardous chemical
([http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aC9NAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA93&dq=%...](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aC9NAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA93&dq=%22chromate+of+lead%22+candy)).

~~~
decktech
From what I was told, lead-free solder has a large amount of flux in it to
make it half-way usable. Unless you're licking your fingers after soldering
with leaded solder, you may be doing more damage to your lungs with the lead-
free stuff than you're doing to your body with the leaded. But I'd love to see
the numbers on this.

~~~
badsock
I've looked into this, but I'm torn. In my mind the most compelling arguments
against lead-free are: of the studies of factory workers who work every day
with lead/tin solder, they couldn't find elevated blood lead levels; and that
the fluxes in lead-free solders are both more exotic (i.e. less studied for
adverse health effects) and a greater proportion of the solder.

The danger of absorbed lead is clear, but it's not a straight line from there
to lead-free solder. Furthermore, the process that resulted in the EU (mostly)
banning lead solder seems to be based more on the precautionary principle than
any evidence of health or environmental damage from solder specifically. Added
to that is some definite PR misinformation floating around - it's been hard
for me to come to any conclusions.

~~~
willyt
The EU regulation is about preventing lead contamination of the waste stream.

------
GhotiFish
You know, we really ought to rename Tantalum->Lead, and Lead->Tantalum.

Can someone clarify what the last part of the article was saying?

    
    
        In some hotspots - downwind from old smelters, or where
        miners dumped their spoils - it can be as high as 3%.
    

Does that seriously mean you could scoop a handful of dirt and 3% of that
would be lead?!

~~~
masklinn
Yes, though I expect it's 3% by mass, so for 1kg of soil you get 30g of lead
(30000ppm).

For reference, uncontaminated natural soil averages 10ppm.

------
gadders
For those that liked the article, it's basically a re-write of one of the
episodes of the Elements podcast from the BBC World Service.

You can get the other episodes here:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/elements](http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/elements)

It's very entertaining and highly recommended.

------
DonHopkins
My grandparents had lead christmas tree tinsel, which they carefully removed
from the tree at the end of christmas and packed away for next year. It was
admittedly beautiful, and it hung straight down without fluttering around like
that cheap plastic stuff!

------
ern
As nasty as lead is, a few things make me wonder if some of the claims,
particularly regarding low levels of lead and IQ, are on shaky ground. The
Flynn Effect continued despite lead levels rising during the twentieth
century. Now that lead has been eliminated, there should be clear increases in
IQ- have these been found?

------
comrade1
And it tastes so so sweet...

When my friends and I were children we found pieces of lead while dumpster
diving. Probably 5 pounds of it. We taught ourselves how to make plaster-of-
paris molds and tried to counterfeit the most important thing to us - video
game tokens from the local arcade.

We made only a handful of tokens before we realized the effort was more than
the payoff. We had to rebuild the mold each time and break it with a hammer to
pull out the token.

We never even tried the tokens. And I think the lead fumes from melting it on
a bunsen burner from my Christmas chemistry set probably didn't help us in the
long run...

Making nitrogen tri-iodide in high-school had a much better payoff, even if we
had to steal the solid iodine from the chemistry class supply closet. This was
before the internet and so we learned this one from the anarchist's cookbook.
My cat hated walking in the basement after each batch.

Did anyone else experience the purple acrid smoke at the back of your throat?

~~~
danieltillett
I did the same thing as as a kid with my brother (we broken open batteries
instead to get the lead). I never tried to spend the “money” we made, but just
used it to impress other kids in the playground. I guess this is where some of
the appeal of physical gold comes from - the weight of these coins when held
in the hand sure impressed.

We avoided breaking the mould by casting the plaster of paris in two sections.
The first you cast to halfway up the side of the coin lying flat and once it
sets you rub grease over the top of everything and then cast the over half.
Once everything has dried the two half split apart easy. We put in little
sticks into the first cast sticking up 5mm so that the two halves could be
aligned again after removing the coin. You could use this mould as many times
as you liked. I do agree that the effort far out weighed the financial reward
though :)

Someone should start making and selling gold plated tungsten coins as a cheap
replica of gold coins - I know this sometimes happens as forgeries, but it
would be nice to have a few hundred of these to play around with and impress
your friends.

Edit. It looks like there is a company in China that actually does this. I
have contacted them to see what they cost as I would love to have some of
these.

~~~
dzhiurgis
Batteries also hold PbSO3 or smth, which mixed with aluminium powder makes
very loud bang.

Oh and then the acetone peroxide we used to make from washing liquid. Don't
even ask me how I managed to source nitric acid as I just kept it in my room
until mason jar lid just disintegrated...

------
notastartup
The crime rate correlation with lead tainted gasoline is fascinating.

Could it be that in lower socioeconomic areas have older cars that produces
lead in to the air, and the population ends up breathing a lot of it?

~~~
mturmon
You have been downvoted, but you have a point. In the 1970s, you could buy
both leaded and unleaded gas at service stations. New cars used unleaded gas,
but old ones "required" leaded for various reasons that turned out to be
mostly wrong ([http://www.stevelinden.com/unleaded-gas-vs-regular-gas-in-
cl...](http://www.stevelinden.com/unleaded-gas-vs-regular-gas-in-classic-
cars)). Unleaded was required to work with the catalytic converters that were
newly required in cars.

Regular leaded gas was cheaper. My neighbor had the catalytic converter in his
car removed (it was illegal) so he could use the cheaper leaded gas.

So there would be an effect in which old cars imply more lead.

~~~
teddyh
“It’s the model made before catalytic converters, so it’ll run good on regular
gas. Whaddaya say, is it the new bluesmobile or what?”

— Elwood Blues, 1980, _The Blues Brothers_

