Sometimes it's remarkable to think almost everyone (certainly city-dwellers, at least) in their mid-50's and older grew up with low-level lead poisoning from exhaust.
I guess. . . as a city-dweller, it's still a daily thing for me. All that lead settled on the ground, and it's still there. So I need to be much more careful about letting my kids play in the dirt in our backyard than I do when we're visiting friends in the country. Some studies have suggested it's a bigger source of exposure in kids than lead-based paint or contaminated water.
It's also one of the main reasons why the CDC recommends that everyone take off their shoes when they enter the house.
