8 ms·

> Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys. Yeah this was going to be my question, is where is the lead coming from? Water, toys, what else

> Another source of lead, unfortunately, is in children's toys. Yeah this was going to be my question, is where is the lead coming from? Water, toys, what else? Having a 4 week old, seeing this concerns me so I'd love to do what I can to avoid it.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
clircle 5y ago
Soil, water, lead pipes.
gwbas1c 5y ago
It's in the solder used to join pipes together. Even after "lead pipes" were banned in the US, it was still used to join copper pipe together. It's also in solder used in electronics, although I doubt that half of American children have a parent who regularly solders at home.
- tdeck 5y ago
  Modern mass-market electronics have been made with lead-free solder for a long time because of RoHS regulations (I believe this is an EU thing but most manufacturers have retooled everything to be lead-free). I'd argue that electronics solder is a lot less of a concern anyway since it's usually only in hard-to-reach places. It's a major concern for disposal, however.
Foobar8568 5y ago
Paints and "metallic" jewelries for kids, it often makes the news.
londons_explore 5y ago
Avoid anything over 50 years old. Old stuff has lead, but also has a bunch of other things that are of dubious health effects. But new stuff contains more volatiles, more fluorinated plastics, and a far wider array of newish chemicals we don't yet have good data on (nanoparticles etc.) Overall, I'd say that unless you have a lifetime to test and research everything, it probably isn't worth making any lifestyle choices to avoid unhealthy materials, because in doing so there's a good chance you'll just switch to another. But you should ask your government to put more money into population wide health initiatives, like research into health effects of chemicals.
- FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
  Or avoid anything that wasn't made the same way 400 years ago. ;-) Except pewter. Avoid that. But like -- wood, cast iron, earthenware, unleaded glass, natural fibers (cotton, linen, hemp), vegetable dyes: I don't see how you go wrong with those.
kords 5y ago
I got a bathtub stopper and I saw on the box a Prop65 warning. Not sure if it's because of the lead.
JCBird1012 5y ago
Smaller general aviation aircraft still use 100LL gasoline (the LL stands for low lead) - and even though there’s lead-free replacement candidates (still going through regulatory approval, at least in the US), it’s been known that areas around airports with frequent GA traffic have higher levels of lead in the air, and children living near said airports may have elevated levels of lead in their blood (https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2021/08/06/new-study-finds-local-airports-are-raising-blood-lead-levels-in-children https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2021/08/06/new-study-finds-l...)
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  >and children living near said airports may have elevated levels of lead in their blood Or is that because the upper middle class types avoid airport noise like the plague leaving the housing stock around airports cheaper, older and more leaded? The correlation between low income and lead (all known bad chemicals highly used in the past really) exposure is well studied rather than speculative.
- verst 5y ago
  What about the pilots? I always get this fuel on my hands during preflight when sumping the fuel tanks.
  - stonemetal12 5y ago
    Lead doesn't absorb through the skin. You have to breathe or eat it. As long as you thoroughly wash your hands after preflight, the only exposure should be the fumes and exhaust in the air.
    - nate_meurer 5y ago
      No, tetraethyl lead, which is the form of lead found in fuel, is easily absorbed through the skin.
  - Symbiote 5y ago
    Maybe pilots should be required to lick a block of lead before each flight, so they have some incentive to stop using leaded fuel.
zeven7 5y ago
Radiolab just had an interesting episode on how we used to use leaded gasoline and how it resulted in lead being everywhere. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/heavy-metal https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/heavy...
zoomablemind 5y ago
In the course of regular pediatric visits the doctor should at some point check the blood for lead early on. Not on every visit, of course, they have a schedule for the blood work. As for the concerns, if there're reasons, doctor recommened us to check the water first. There may also be free test kits from the city. Also, out of caution, we were running the water off for some time before filling pots and doing washes, esp. in the morning. Dust wise, there's no easy solution. The wet cleaning, mopping the floors regularly and maintaining reasonable humidity indoors would help keep dust down... but babies love to crawl. Perhaps being outdoors more may be an option, unless it's even more polluted. If breastfed, mama's health is equally cruicial!
nradov 5y ago
Lead paint is still occasionally found on toys imported from China. But after a previous recall incident the major US toy brands now have better control over their supply chains so the risk should be low. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749118313988 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02697...
nate_meurer 5y ago
Watch out for dishes, especially older ones. The older Lenox dishes my family used for 40 years turned out to have heavily leaded glaze on the surface. By the time I was using them for my own kids, the glaze could turn a lead-check swab bright red, which means we were eating that lead. After I discovered this I replaced all of our dishes with plain white Corelle. Corelle currently uses lead-free glaze; the plain white is just me being an absolutist. Note that vintage Corelle and almost all other vintage cookware contains some amount of lead in the decorative glaze. Here's a good resource for lead content in the household items your kids are likely to encounter: https://tamararubin.com/ https://tamararubin.com/

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

clircle 5y ago

Soil, water, lead pipes.

gwbas1c 5y ago

It's in the solder used to join pipes together. Even after "lead pipes" were banned in the US, it was still used to join copper pipe together. It's also in solder used in electronics, although I doubt that half of American children have a parent who regularly solders at home.

tdeck 5y ago
Modern mass-market electronics have been made with lead-free solder for a long time because of RoHS regulations (I believe this is an EU thing but most manufacturers have retooled everything to be lead-free). I'd argue that electronics solder is a lot less of a concern anyway since it's usually only in hard-to-reach places. It's a major concern for disposal, however.

Foobar8568 5y ago

Paints and "metallic" jewelries for kids, it often makes the news.

londons_explore 5y ago

Avoid anything over 50 years old. Old stuff has lead, but also has a bunch of other things that are of dubious health effects. But new stuff contains more volatiles, more fluorinated plastics, and a far wider array of newish chemicals we don't yet have good data on (nanoparticles etc.) Overall, I'd say that unless you have a lifetime to test and research everything, it probably isn't worth making any lifestyle choices to avoid unhealthy materials, because in doing so there's a good chance you'll just switch to another. But you should ask your government to put more money into population wide health initiatives, like research into health effects of chemicals.

FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
Or avoid anything that wasn't made the same way 400 years ago. ;-) Except pewter. Avoid that. But like -- wood, cast iron, earthenware, unleaded glass, natural fibers (cotton, linen, hemp), vegetable dyes: I don't see how you go wrong with those.

kords 5y ago

I got a bathtub stopper and I saw on the box a Prop65 warning. Not sure if it's because of the lead.

JCBird1012 5y ago

Smaller general aviation aircraft still use 100LL gasoline (the LL stands for low lead) - and even though there’s lead-free replacement candidates (still going through regulatory approval, at least in the US), it’s been known that areas around airports with frequent GA traffic have higher levels of lead in the air, and children living near said airports may have elevated levels of lead in their blood (https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2021/08/06/new-study-finds-local-airports-are-raising-blood-lead-levels-in-children https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2021/08/06/new-study-finds-l...)

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
>and children living near said airports may have elevated levels of lead in their blood Or is that because the upper middle class types avoid airport noise like the plague leaving the housing stock around airports cheaper, older and more leaded? The correlation between low income and lead (all known bad chemicals highly used in the past really) exposure is well studied rather than speculative.
verst 5y ago
What about the pilots? I always get this fuel on my hands during preflight when sumping the fuel tanks.
- stonemetal12 5y ago
  Lead doesn't absorb through the skin. You have to breathe or eat it. As long as you thoroughly wash your hands after preflight, the only exposure should be the fumes and exhaust in the air.
  - nate_meurer 5y ago
    No, tetraethyl lead, which is the form of lead found in fuel, is easily absorbed through the skin.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  Maybe pilots should be required to lick a block of lead before each flight, so they have some incentive to stop using leaded fuel.

zeven7 5y ago

Radiolab just had an interesting episode on how we used to use leaded gasoline and how it resulted in lead being everywhere. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/heavy-metal https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/heavy...

zoomablemind 5y ago

In the course of regular pediatric visits the doctor should at some point check the blood for lead early on. Not on every visit, of course, they have a schedule for the blood work. As for the concerns, if there're reasons, doctor recommened us to check the water first. There may also be free test kits from the city. Also, out of caution, we were running the water off for some time before filling pots and doing washes, esp. in the morning. Dust wise, there's no easy solution. The wet cleaning, mopping the floors regularly and maintaining reasonable humidity indoors would help keep dust down... but babies love to crawl. Perhaps being outdoors more may be an option, unless it's even more polluted. If breastfed, mama's health is equally cruicial!

nradov 5y ago

Lead paint is still occasionally found on toys imported from China. But after a previous recall incident the major US toy brands now have better control over their supply chains so the risk should be low. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749118313988 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02697...

nate_meurer 5y ago

Watch out for dishes, especially older ones. The older Lenox dishes my family used for 40 years turned out to have heavily leaded glaze on the surface. By the time I was using them for my own kids, the glaze could turn a lead-check swab bright red, which means we were eating that lead. After I discovered this I replaced all of our dishes with plain white Corelle. Corelle currently uses lead-free glaze; the plain white is just me being an absolutist. Note that vintage Corelle and almost all other vintage cookware contains some amount of lead in the decorative glaze. Here's a good resource for lead content in the household items your kids are likely to encounter: https://tamararubin.com/ https://tamararubin.com/