3 ms·

Some US Troops Are Slowly Being Poisoned by Lead in Their Bones

10 points by gscott 8y ago

giardini 8y ago
This alarmist headline misleadingly implies _all_ US troops are being poisoned whereas in fact the article title was "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-military-soldiers.html 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.
- crooked-v 8y ago
  12 out of all soldiers may not be a lot, but 12 out of 38 certainly is.
  - giardini 8y ago
    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 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/magazine/lead-poisoning-military-soldiers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/magazine/lead-poisoning-m... reveals: "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."
- floatingatoll 8y ago
  I emailed this to the mods for headline and/or link fixing.
  - dang 8y ago
    We put Some above, instead of the clickbait These.
- sctb 8y ago
  A discussion of the NYT article is over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19571054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19571054.

10 points by gscott 8y ago

This alarmist headline misleadingly implies _all_ US troops are being poisoned whereas in fact the article title was "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-military-soldiers.html 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.

crooked-v 8y ago
12 out of all soldiers may not be a lot, but 12 out of 38 certainly is.
- giardini 8y ago
  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 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/magazine/lead-poisoning-military-soldiers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/magazine/lead-poisoning-m... reveals: "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."
floatingatoll 8y ago
I emailed this to the mods for headline and/or link fixing.
- dang 8y ago
  We put Some above, instead of the clickbait These.
sctb 8y ago
A discussion of the NYT article is over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19571054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19571054.