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1 in 4 California Child Care Centers Had Unsafe Lead Levels in Drinking Water
- notjulianjaynes 3y agoTo hopefully offer some useful context to what 500ppb means here, the lower bound for blood lead levels the CDC monitors is 3.5 ug/dL or 35ppb. Lower blood concentrations than this are not nessecarily safe, and levels as low as 0.5 ug/dL have been found to be correlated with ADHD [1]. Add to this that children's bodies absorb more lead than adults, between 50 and 100% of the amount of lead ingested [2]. So the concentration of lead in drinking water does not have to be very high at all before it can be harmful. Certainly it's lower than the 500 to 11,000+ ppb reported on here. Hopefully current and past students of these schools will be tested for lead and given treatment if nessecary. Edit forgot links 1. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/understanding-link-between-lead-toxicity-and-adhd https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/understanding-link-bet... 2. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/biologic_fate.html https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/biologic_fate.ht...
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoOnly 13 had over 500ppb, the threshold was 5ppb (as correlated with ADHD), which is what 25% are over.
- notjulianjaynes 3y agoYes I did not mean to confuse that. I only recently learned that such small levels of exposure can be as hazardous as they are, and wasn't sure that it was common knowledge.
- balderdash 3y agoHow on earth is this not an earth shattering political event for Californians?
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoIt turns out that while Californians have invested in awareness vs the ostrich approach of other states, they are inundated with lots of signals (eg things can cause cancer) so aren’t sure what to pay attention to.