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.
I know that when we lived Down the Shore that our flooring tiles (which were cracked in places) were made out of asbestos and so was the siding on our little house
And the floor tiles looked like these only not the same colors:
I lived right across the street from a marina in Jersey. I mean, if you crossed the street you were on a boardwalk, no houses there, just boats. There were tall weeds on our side, mostly cattails but other types of tall weeds as well--like reeds a.k.a. breeding ground for mosquitos. In summer, we could hear 'The Bug Man' coming before we smelled him. 'It's the bug man! Shut the windows!' but we always got a good sniff of DDT in spite of ourselves.
Looked something like this:
And not only that, but my parents took underwater diving lessons and collected the whole nine yards. Scuba gear, oxygen tanks, regulators, and I had my own set of real child-sized equipment. My father made lead weights for underwater diving belts in molds. I remember this. They looked something like this only his were a bit shiny:
I'm pretty sure I was exposed to every toxic substance available at the time. I guess I was wondering how I am even alive at this age and are there tests to find out how messed up my brain is or other major organs really are? Am I possibly more screwed up than I realize or does the human body manage to survive in spite of such years' long exposures?
Were you exposed to toxic things as a child? Do you ever wonder how much it might have messed you up? Do you think it messed you up at all? I seem to be alive and well but who knows?
Musings of a Jersey Girl in the wee hours...
