"38 service members from 2012 to today [were] tested at Mount Sinai for chronic lead poisoning. Of those, a dozen have measured bone lead levels higher than what is considered normal, including four with almost twice the expected amount."
So 12 soldiers, hardly an epidemic. And who knows the cause. Perhaps most of the soldiers are reloaders who have cast their own bullets at home for years. Maybe they mold fishing weights or make lead toy soldiers. IOW this is something small, although important to those affected, which merits two investigations:
- one of their backgrounds and sources of exposure and
- perhaps a random sample test of the infantry population.
crooked-v says: "12 out of all soldiers may not be a lot, but 12 out of 38 certainly is."
If the 38 were a random sample then finding that 12 of the 38 had high lead levels would indeed be alarming and call for further study. But it appears those were persons already suspected of having problems. In contrast the article at
"The Department of Defense, which until last year annually tested blood lead levels in just 1,200 out of almost three million troops and civilian employees, has found very few cases of lead poisoning, leading Army officials to believe that there isn’t a widespread problem."
"These US Troops Are Slowly Being Poisoned by Lead in Their Bones".
Furthermore, from the original article at
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/magazine/lead-poisoning-m...
"38 service members from 2012 to today [were] tested at Mount Sinai for chronic lead poisoning. Of those, a dozen have measured bone lead levels higher than what is considered normal, including four with almost twice the expected amount."
So 12 soldiers, hardly an epidemic. And who knows the cause. Perhaps most of the soldiers are reloaders who have cast their own bullets at home for years. Maybe they mold fishing weights or make lead toy soldiers. IOW this is something small, although important to those affected, which merits two investigations:
- one of their backgrounds and sources of exposure and
- perhaps a random sample test of the infantry population.