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Lead poisoning makes you slightly dumber, it's not a big obvious poisoning, that's why it took centuries before humans noticed that they were poisoning themselv
by guelo 7y ago
Lead poisoning makes you slightly dumber, it's not a big obvious poisoning, that's why it took centuries before humans noticed that they were poisoning themselves with lead. Hopefully it doesn't take that long to figure out how much damage plastic does to us.
- justin66 7y agoI'd guess that that is actually also why it is taking us so long to fix the problems caused by lead existing in the environment where it can affect humans. We know now that tetraethyllead in gasoline caused a great deal of harm and we've quantified it pretty well, for example, but people knew how dangerous that chemical was much longer. People who demand a big obvious poisoning, as you said, before accepting the reduction of obviously dangerous substances in the environment is needed are the worst.
- phyzome 7y agoLead poisoning can be much more obvious than that, and we've known for centuries that lead was poisonous. The Romans knew it, and they still used it in their pipes and even in their drinks.
- guelo 7y agoYet we kept putting it in our paint and our gasoline until not very long ago. Probably because of people minimizing the problem, kind of like many of the commenters here.