4 ms·

I get eating lead pencils or paint chips isn’t good But I do wonder if these statics are in like the moderate coffee/red meat/alcohol studies flip flopping bet

• esyir 5y ago
  A quick nitpick, pencils don't actually contain lead (Pb). Pencil "lead" is just graphite + clay. Actual Lead pencils died out in the early 20th century. Technically "last century" though.
• foxyv 5y ago
  Lead exposure is kind of insidious. My cousins lived in a house with lead paint which was discovered when doctors tested them and they had HUGE blood lead levels in their bloodstream. Turns out, as paint gets older it makes leaded paint dust which is inhaled and absorbed. They pretty much tore that house down to the studs afterwards to get rid of it all. The effects of lead poisoning are extremely well understood including mechanism of injury. There is a reason it is such a big deal. In adults it's not a huge problem at lower levels, but child development is significantly impaired by small amounts. There are even studies showing that exposure under 10 micrograms/dL can cause impairment. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046839/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046839/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1257652/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1257652/
  • zaphirplane 5y ago
    That goes to the lead is bad argument which isn’t in dispute The “824 million IQ points” drop for a generation of Americans, deserves a closer look by capable statisticians