I worked at a nursing home once and there was a company remodeling, chipping up floor tile. I worked weekends only, so the next weekend I came back it looked like the work had halted. My supervisor told me that the company doing the job walked off of the job because they learned that there was asbestos in the floor tile. It wasn’t long before a new company came in and completed the job without abatement.
Also, I remember my granddaddy pulling ceiling tile down out of his house that was built in the 30’s. Later in life, I heard that there was asbestos in the tiles in those homes. Now, I don’t know if this was the original ceiling material or not, or if asbestos was used in ceiling tiles back in the 30s.
Recently, an outside faucet needed to be replaced at my mothers house. I bought one of those brass ones. It had a tag that said it may contain a small amount of lead. How often did we take a drink out of the hose as children?
Who knows why we are still here?
"Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” Jude 1:24
“the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 ESV
Some here might remember the story about being 10, when I cooked a pizza kit and ate both pizzas in one sitting, and made it as far as the bathroom door before spilling my guts all over the floor.
To this day, I still believe I was poisoned by Chef Boyardee.
Religion is for people whose existential fear is greater than their common sense.
When I was a child I am more than certain that I was exposed to lead paint in the old farm house we lived in when I was born until my toddler years and my Jersey born parents headed back to Jersey. I don't know if I actually ate chipped lead paint but I bet my crib was painted with it so I might have teethed on the sides and ingested it.
This is the kind of thought that regularly makes me panic slightly. Not that this makes any sense. Damage would be done, right? In any case, you have my sympathies. I have vague memories of lead lectures as a child, and I wonder what prompted them. Sinking feeling follows. LOL.
It does come over me from time to time. The lead, DDT trucks, and the asbestos.
LIGHT HAS A NAME
We only get stronger when we are lifting something that is heavier than what we are used to. ~ KF
This is the kind of thought that regularly makes me panic slightly. Not that this makes any sense. Damage would be done, right? In any case, you have my sympathies. I have vague memories of lead lectures as a child, and I wonder what prompted them. Sinking feeling follows. LOL.
It’s possible, but it’s also true that the dose makes the poison. Inhalation of lead was becoming a source of poisoning until leaded gas was phased out. Some scientists have theorized that the high rates of crime in the 60s (?) were influenced by the effects of lead from car exhaust.
But what if you handled the lead weights and then bit your fingernails? Speaking of leaded gas, what if when your Dad pumped it with a cig in his mouth and the car running, and you opened the windows to inhale the gas fumes because it smelled so good?
I don’t think you have to worry about the DDT exposure. If I recall correctly, DDT was banned for use as an agricultural pesticide because of its effects on certain wildlife. I’d have to check, but I don’t think it was even banned the us for mosquito control. It continues to be used in parts of the world where malaria is prevalent. And I believe it is still used on or in mosquito netting. Bugs also become resistant to it, so switching pesticides would have been inevitable.
Do people become resistant to it like the bugs?
Last edited by Jersey Girl on Sun Mar 20, 2022 5:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
LIGHT HAS A NAME
We only get stronger when we are lifting something that is heavier than what we are used to. ~ KF
Imagine my surprise when I read this thread thinking we were going to delve into our childhood trauma around toxic parenting only to read about lead paint and mold.
Oh don't worry, Xeno. That topic is coming soon. I'm working my way through a list.
Last edited by Jersey Girl on Sun Mar 20, 2022 5:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
LIGHT HAS A NAME
We only get stronger when we are lifting something that is heavier than what we are used to. ~ KF
But what if you handled the lead weights and then bit your fingernails?
From, ‘ Lead poisoning from ingestion of fishing gear: A review’, published in 2019:
Sahmel et al. (2015) found that simply handling fishing sinkers resulted in deposition of lead on the skin and that an average of 24% of this lead could be transferred from the hands to the mouth. Practices such as biting lead split-shot to secure onto the line and melting down scrap lead to produce home-made fishing weights are both examples of significant public health concerns directly related to lead fishing weights. Molds to cast homemade sinkers, jigs, bullets, lead soldiers, and other items are readily available for purchase, and there are numerous internet videos illustrating such techniques without providing any meaningful safety and health information. Indeed, many sources document significant lead exposure from the melting of lead at home to make fishing gear and other objects (Olivero-Verbel et al. 2007; Khan 2014). These cases expose people to lead via fumes and small particulates that can be inhaled or may contaminate food and water.
The ingestion hazard to humans posed by small fishing weights should not be overlooked. Poison control centers are commonly consulted on cases of ingestion of lead foreign bodies, and previous studies have noted that some of these are fishing weights (Cole et al. 2010). In 2016, 2412 of the poisoning cases reported to poison control centers in the US were due to single exposures to lead, typically due to the ingestion of small lead items (Gummin et al. 2017). In many cases the lead item ingested was not defined. However, in 38 cases reported to US poison control centers in 2016 the item ingested was specifically recorded as lead fishing tackle and most of these (28 cases) were due to ingestion by children under 6 years of age (Gummin et al. 2017). Note that not all ingestions of lead sinkers will result in reports to poison control centers and the toxic impacts of the exposure may not be immediately evident. It is likely that the poison control center numbers underestimate of the total number of children exposed to lead via this route. Significantly elevated blood lead levels have been documented in children exposed to lead for very short periods of time. For example, blood lead levels in a 4-year old child were found to exceed 65 µg/dl the day following ingestion of a single fishing sinker (Cole et al. 2010). Retention of lead fishing sinkers in the stomach and intestines of children following ingestion has been demonstrated and can result in long-term elevation of lead levels (Mowad et al. 1998).
Speaking of leaded gas, what if when your Dad pumped it with a cig in his mouth and the car running, and you opened the windows to inhale the gas fumes because it smelled so good?
From a report issued in 1985:
“Chronic gasoline sniffing can result in significant lead toxicity, which may go undetected until severe medical problems arise. Besides providing medical care for lead toxicity, health-care providers need to understand the social and cultural factors influencing young people to abuse chemicals and drugs.”
You may not have been with your Dad when refeuling enough times for that to be a sole source of problematic lead absorption, but it didn’t help things.
