Boomers and lead

Mr.Badguy

Super lefty
This is something I've been seeing pop up and it's fascinating to me. I was born in 1984, mostly after leaded gas was used and after lead paint was outlawed. Yes I turn 40 this year and I'm about as happy about that as one could imagine. -_-

Anyway, to sum up the theory as I understand it:

Lead, both atmospheric and in concentrated things such as paint or plumbing can cause drop in IQ (I dont put much faith in IQ ratings anyway but still), irritability/increased aggression, fatigue, joint pain, basically a whole host of negative PERSONALITY and physical effects.

Lead also gets stored in the bones for decades. As people get older, their bones start to break down a bit which can cause lead to be released BACK into the body.

So when I see how many boomers either just flip their shit in public, act in such manners as to cause their family to want nothing to do with them, become Trump sycophants, or generally just act in bizarre ways, I've started to wonder to what degree lead is playing a part.

https://apnews.com/article/science-...d-prevention-bec63d5a6e98f952ad6d111c90e5a1b2

https://www.statesman.com/story/new...ead-can-become-mean-cranky-adults/7985130002/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29634994/

So again this is fascinating to me, if you're a boomer or even the upper end of Gen X you may want to ask your doctor about the possibility of lead being in your system.
 
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Sorry, not trying to derail your thread, but are you the youngest poster on the board?

Maybe? I can't think of any other posters that come off as being around my age or younger. I'm technically on the older side of Millennial with boomer parents (68 and 65)
 
Maybe? I can't think of any other posters that come off as being around my age or younger. I'm technically on the older side of Millennial with boomer parents (68 and 65)

I'm 51 so kind of right in the heart of Gen X. This board is heavily dominated by Boomers and from the sound of it, retired Boomers. Not stating this in a negative way as it is what it is, but the board is different with those demographics.
 
This is something I've been seeing pop up and it's fascinating to me. I was born in 1984, mostly after leaded gas was used and after lead paint was outlawed. Yes I turn 40 this year and I'm about as happy about that as one could imagine. -_-

Anyway, to sum up the theory as I understand it:

Lead, both atmospheric and in concentrated things such as paint or plumbing can cause drop in IQ (I dont put much faith in IQ ratings anyway but still), irritability/increased aggression, fatigue, joint pain, basically a whole host of negative PERSONALITY and physical effects.

Lead also gets stored in the bones for decades. As people get older, their bones start to break down a bit which can cause lead to be released BACK into the body.

So when I see how many boomers either just flip their shit in public, act in such manners as to cause their family to want nothing to do with them, become Trump sycophants, or generally just act in bizarre ways, I've started to wonder to what degree lead is playing a part.

https://apnews.com/article/science-...d-prevention-bec63d5a6e98f952ad6d111c90e5a1b2

https://www.statesman.com/story/new...ead-can-become-mean-cranky-adults/7985130002/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29634994/

So again this is fascinating to me, if you're a boomer or even the upper end of Gen X you may want to ask your doctor about the possibility of lead being in your system.

I was born in 1946, and the heating pipes in the school basement were covered by exposed asbestos.
We'd do chin-ups on them.

Children's shoe stores used X-ray machines to check out how the shoes fit, radiation be damned.
Only Frank and maybe EE remember those, I'm guessing.

We had lead pipes, lead paint, leaded gasoline, and the school furnace was fired by coal.

Music records were made of brittle shellac, not vinyl, and spun at 78 RPM.
The new fangled televisions sets showed test patterns when they had no programming to show.

IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!
 
I was born in 1946, and the heating pipes in the school basement were covered by exposed asbestos.
We'd do chin-ups on them.

Children's shoe stores used X-ray machines to check out how the shoes fit, radiation be damned.
Only Frank and maybe EE remember those, I'm guessing.

We had lead pipes, lead paint, leaded gasoline, and the school furnace was fired by coal.

Music records were made of brittle shellac, not vinyl, and spun at 78 RPM.
The new fangled televisions sets showed test patterns when they had no programming to show.

IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!

And no car seats for kids
 
I'm pretty sure I had at least one tooth filled with lead. It was the most popular filling at the time.
 
This is something I've been seeing pop up and it's fascinating to me. I was born in 1984, mostly after leaded gas was used and after lead paint was outlawed. Yes I turn 40 this year and I'm about as happy about that as one could imagine. -_-
Lead paint is not outlawed. Gasoline using TEL as the moderator is still made and used today in the United States. Not all gasoline use ethanol as the moderator.
Anyway, to sum up the theory as I understand it:

Lead, both atmospheric and in concentrated things such as paint or plumbing can cause drop in IQ (I dont put much faith in IQ ratings anyway but still), irritability/increased aggression, fatigue, joint pain, basically a whole host of negative PERSONALITY and physical effects.
Don't eat lead.
Lead also gets stored in the bones for decades. As people get older, their bones start to break down a bit which can cause lead to be released BACK into the body.
WRONG. The body naturally removes lead. If lead poisoning occurs (it still happens) treatments are available to help the body remove lead faster.

Entire bones are normally replaced every few years by the body. About every 10 years you have a new skeleton.
So when I see how many boomers either just flip their shit in public, act in such manners as to cause their family to want nothing to do with them, become Trump sycophants, or generally just act in bizarre ways, I've started to wonder to what degree lead is playing a part.
None, since all of these are opinions and hallucinations by you and other Democrats, not actual behavior.
A newspaper is not a chemist.
A newspaper is not a chemist.
The NIH is a government organization. Not chemists.
So again this is fascinating to me, if you're a boomer or even the upper end of Gen X you may want to ask your doctor about the possibility of lead being in your system.
Lead is in everyone's system, even yours. Lead occurs as part of the normal topsoil. You eat food containing lead (both plants and critters). You just don't build up enough (normally) to exceed the body's ability to get rid of it.

The stuff is not plutonium.

Lead is used in making bearings for machinery (including cars), soldering (used in car radiators and electronics...your computer you are using right now contains lead), pigments, paints (yes there is still leaded paint in use), ammunition, musical instruments, cables and conduits, pottery glazes (particularly on imported stuff), sporting equipment (especially gym, fishing, hunting, and camping equipment), etc.

Don't eat lead, and you won't have problems.
 
Maybe? I can't think of any other posters that come off as being around my age or younger. I'm technically on the older side of Millennial with boomer parents (68 and 65)

You really should study the generational cycle. Boomer like generations come about every 80 years. So do civic like generations. This is not associated with the presence of lead or any other chemical.

With each generation comes the generational 'gap', where a generation figures they know more than their parents.
 
I was born in 1946, and the heating pipes in the school basement were covered by exposed asbestos.
We'd do chin-ups on them.

Children's shoe stores used X-ray machines to check out how the shoes fit, radiation be damned.
Only Frank and maybe EE remember those, I'm guessing.

We had lead pipes, lead paint, leaded gasoline, and the school furnace was fired by coal.

Music records were made of brittle shellac, not vinyl, and spun at 78 RPM.
The new fangled televisions sets showed test patterns when they had no programming to show.

IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!

Heh. Remembering the good ole' days?

No video games (kids had to actually find something to do, like ride a bike (no helmet!), build your own scooter or skateboard, play Kick the Can or baseball or football right there in the street or yard, endure long family car trips (no seatbelts!), get another box of rollcaps for your gun, etc), no CD, DVD, or Blueray media. Not even cassette tapes. Even car radios had tubes in them. You would go down to the local drugstore and test your tubes. Gasoline was $0.30/gallon, and many high school kids had cars or trucks...big chunks of Detroit iron. If there were family home movies being filmed, it was done on single 8 film, and you had to get it processed. Cameras for still photos were big and bulky too. You had no idea if the pictures were any good until you got them back from the processor.

Then, of course you had all the huge construction sets and chemistry sets (Erector, Gilbert, Chemcraft, Lego (when it was cheap!), and numerous others. Nothing like the pitiful toys you see for sale today.

Now it's the land of the video game, the home computer, the internet (and the web with it). Every cell phone has a camera, far better resolution and capability than any still or movie camera back then. Instantly watch what you filmed or photograph...share it with others on the internet. All at a whim.
 
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Lead is only dangerous if you ingest it. That is, eat it or breathe it. Lead in paint is only dangerous if you're eating the paint or something. Tetraethyl lead in gasoline was seen, at the time, as a means to boost engine performance for the same amount of gasoline. It could raise the octane rating as high as 150. In 1930's to 1960's engines that was a big performance boost at a low price while the pollution aspects were largely unknown or ignored. Removing lead by the 1970's was a good idea since the need for it boosting engine performance really wasn't necessary with better engine technology. Today, there's really no reason for it as engines deliver great performance on lower octane ratings.

Lead in paint was added to prevent mold and other organic growth on painted surfaces. With organic based paints using oils as a solvent this was a serious problem that lead helped take care of. There was no need for it otherwise as white pigments could be easily obtained by using other oxides. With the advent of plastic paints using water as a solvent, lead was no longer a necessity as these new paints were mold proof. In marine (ship) settings, replacing lead with 2-part epoxies was a major step up. These new paints were much harder than the old solvent based lead paints used to prevent marine growth on ships with the new ones being basically immune to such growth on them.

Lead in pipes was used because it was malleable and cheap. Leaded steel was the same way. With the growth of an oxide layer inside such pipes the exposure to lead was minimal unless the water sat unused for long periods (like days or weeks). If water was flowing, exposure was minimal. Yes, replacing such pipes with copper or plastic is a great idea. Where issues with lead and leaded galvanized pipe come up is usually older systems that experience a change in pH due to shifting water sources. A sudden pH change leads to a "Crud burst." This happened in Tucson and Flint as two examples. In both cases, the pH shift that came with the sudden change in sources caused a lot of the built up scale and oxide layer inside water pipes to come loose. Yes, you get black water, and lots of ewwww coming out of the faucet. The pipes might burst or leak if the walls are now thin enough to fail. In both cases I gave, the politicians ignored the advice of the engineers and ordered a change in source with the resulting disaster that the engineers predicted. Of course, the politicians expected it wouldn't happen and subsequently said it wasn't their fault (which it was).

Far, far, worse than lead was mercury. Mercury was commonly used in a wider variety of products and can be absorbed cutaneously (through the skin) unlike lead.
 
This is something I've been seeing pop up and it's fascinating to me. I was born in 1984, mostly after leaded gas was used and after lead paint was outlawed. Yes I turn 40 this year and I'm about as happy about that as one could imagine. -_-

Anyway, to sum up the theory as I understand it:

Lead, both atmospheric and in concentrated things such as paint or plumbing can cause drop in IQ (I dont put much faith in IQ ratings anyway but still), irritability/increased aggression, fatigue, joint pain, basically a whole host of negative PERSONALITY and physical effects.

Lead also gets stored in the bones for decades. As people get older, their bones start to break down a bit which can cause lead to be released BACK into the body.

So when I see how many boomers either just flip their shit in public, act in such manners as to cause their family to want nothing to do with them, become Trump sycophants, or generally just act in bizarre ways, I've started to wonder to what degree lead is playing a part.

https://apnews.com/article/science-...d-prevention-bec63d5a6e98f952ad6d111c90e5a1b2

https://www.statesman.com/story/new...ead-can-become-mean-cranky-adults/7985130002/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29634994/

So again this is fascinating to me, if you're a boomer or even the upper end of Gen X you may want to ask your doctor about the possibility of lead being in your system.

Since I don’t experience any of those symptoms, I’m not concerned about it.

However, there may be a connection between IQ and Trump sycophants. We see it frequently in interviews and on this forum, as well
 
Oh, let me add this:

I have to deal with such hazards pretty regularly and have had training in lead, asbestos, etc., awareness and handling. I find the safety nuts go freaking so far overboard in their preventative measures as to take things to the absurd. With asbestos for example, the danger is when it's friable. That is you get the dust airborne. It can get on you and be spread and you can breathe it in. If asbestos is not friable, it's not dangerous. My big encounter is usually old wiring with an asbestos jacket.

cloth-wiring.jpg


It's almost always a dull grey and sometimes a greasy, shiny grey. There are some variants to that. To keep it from becoming friable on removal, you cut it up with your cable crunchers or lineman's without pulling it through any holes or raceway. The pieces go in a double bag that gets sealed. No mess, no muss, nothing gets airborne. Wear some vinyl or latex gloves if you want along with a comfort mask.
 
I was born in 1946, and the heating pipes in the school basement were covered by exposed asbestos.
We'd do chin-ups on them.

Children's shoe stores used X-ray machines to check out how the shoes fit, radiation be damned.
Only Frank and maybe EE remember those, I'm guessing.

We had lead pipes, lead paint, leaded gasoline, and the school furnace was fired by coal.

Music records were made of brittle shellac, not vinyl, and spun at 78 RPM.
The new fangled televisions sets showed test patterns when they had no programming to show.

IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!

Now it becomes clear.
 
Oh, let me add this:

I have to deal with such hazards pretty regularly and have had training in lead, asbestos, etc., awareness and handling. I find the safety nuts go freaking so far overboard in their preventative measures as to take things to the absurd. With asbestos for example, the danger is when it's friable. That is you get the dust airborne. It can get on you and be spread and you can breathe it in. If asbestos is not friable, it's not dangerous. My big encounter is usually old wiring with an asbestos jacket.

cloth-wiring.jpg


It's almost always a dull grey and sometimes a greasy, shiny grey. There are some variants to that. To keep it from becoming friable on removal, you cut it up with your cable crunchers or lineman's without pulling it through any holes or raceway. The pieces go in a double bag that gets sealed. No mess, no muss, nothing gets airborne. Wear some vinyl or latex gloves if you want along with a comfort mask.

Afaik it's the same with lead paint, if you're renovating a house that's found to have lead paint, you have to take extra measures to remove it safely.

But the point of this theory is that along with the types of lead that are concentrated or solid like in paint or plumbing where with average use you don't really contact it (though some people did contact it), there was leaded gas fumes which many people did in fact breathe in for years and years and years.

It's almost comparable to PFAs or micro plastics or whatever people are looking into today. There may be a negative impact on fertility especially among women regarding those chemicals. Though what I find most fascinating about lead is specifically it's neurological effects and how any time I see a boomer that just acts weird, I have to wonder if lead is involved somehow.


https://www.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/s/OGBerDFL6K
 
This is something I've been seeing pop up and it's fascinating to me. I was born in 1984, mostly after leaded gas was used and after lead paint was outlawed. Yes I turn 40 this year and I'm about as happy about that as one could imagine. -_-

Anyway, to sum up the theory as I understand it:

Lead, both atmospheric and in concentrated things such as paint or plumbing can cause drop in IQ (I dont put much faith in IQ ratings anyway but still), irritability/increased aggression, fatigue, joint pain, basically a whole host of negative PERSONALITY and physical effects.

Lead also gets stored in the bones for decades. As people get older, their bones start to break down a bit which can cause lead to be released BACK into the body.

So when I see how many boomers either just flip their shit in public, act in such manners as to cause their family to want nothing to do with them, become Trump sycophants, or generally just act in bizarre ways, I've started to wonder to what degree lead is playing a part.

https://apnews.com/article/science-...d-prevention-bec63d5a6e98f952ad6d111c90e5a1b2

https://www.statesman.com/story/new...ead-can-become-mean-cranky-adults/7985130002/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29634994/

So again this is fascinating to me, if you're a boomer or even the upper end of Gen X you may want to ask your doctor about the possibility of lead being in your system.

aren't problems with lead based paint typically high in the housing occupied by the demmycrats largest power base.......lets be honest.....do you really think Maxine Waters is not the poster child for lead poisoning?......
 
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