tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/lead-3423/articlesLead – The Conversation2024-03-07T13:32:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2180212024-03-07T13:32:32Z2024-03-07T13:32:32ZLead from old paint and pipes is still a harmful and deadly hazard in millions of US homes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572091/original/file-20240130-19-tg1jv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3763%2C2822&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When lead-based paint blisters and cracks, lead dust may be released in the air. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/lead-based-paint-abatement-royalty-free-image/1735464372?phrase=lead%2Bpoisoning%2B">Douglas Rissing/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lead is a potent neurotoxin that causes severe health effects such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15874-7">neurological damage, organ failure and death</a>. </p>
<p>Widely used in products such as paint and gasoline until the late 1970s, lead continues to contaminate environments and harm the health of people around the world. </p>
<p>The World Health Organization estimates that more than <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health#">1 million deaths each year are attributable to lead poisoning</a>, with the highest exposures in developing nations. Lead continues leaching from old paint, pipes and industrial sources into soils, homes and waterways across the globe. </p>
<p>In more recent years, this number has risen at an incredible pace, with some research showing that nearly 5.5 million adults <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00166-3">die from lead-related health complications</a>.</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://hhs.purdue.edu/directory/aaron-specht/">health physicist</a> and my research focuses on ways to improve the technology <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c06622">used to screen for lead</a> and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c00937">environmental toxicants</a>. In developing and applying my technologies to see how people are affected by toxicants like lead, I have tested more than 20,000 people around the world over the past five years.</p>
<p>This preventable health crisis especially threatens children during periods of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.7688">critical brain development</a> but can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwh333">impair intellectual development</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(18)30025-2">long-term health</a> in adults. Understanding and addressing this persistent problem will require improved monitoring, targeted remediation and a great deal more awareness and dialogue.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Lead is especially toxic to children under age 6.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>How lead damages the body</h2>
<p>Lead enters the body through three routes: <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/exposure_routes.html">ingestion, absorption or inhalation</a>. Once inside, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182212051">lead mimics calcium</a> by binding to proteins and enzymes where calcium is typically involved. </p>
<p>Lead looks a lot like calcium to many of the systems in our body. By hijacking these calcium-dependent processes, lead disrupts many normal functions ranging from neurological function to cardiovascular health. </p>
<p>When lead replaces calcium in these processes, it causes <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health#">irreversible damage</a>, even at low levels of chronic exposure. Studies show that low levels of lead are associated with dangerous <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.envres.2016.10.007">lifelong illnesses such as Alzheimer’s</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289%2Fehp.9785">heart disease</a>.</p>
<p>Furthermore, like calcium, lead accumulates <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.919133">in our teeth and bones</a>. This compounds lead’s adverse effects as our bodies grow and age, since the lead in bone will reappear as our body looks to its calcium stores during periods of growth or, critically, during pregnancy. </p>
<p>Lead exposure can come from many sources in our daily life, from water systems using <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/lead-service-lines">lead water lines</a> and <a href="https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/healthy_homes/healthyhomes/lead">legacy exposures from old paint</a> to things that people often don’t think about, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2023.115719">lead in firearms</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.109860">metal pots and pans</a>. </p>
<p>Researchers often see <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.2382">exposures from soils</a> in highly polluted areas, but sometimes it can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115904">present in old donated toys</a> at a child’s day care. </p>
<p>Late in 2023, investigators working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/news/lead-poisoning-outbreak-linked-to-cinnamon-applesauce-pouches.html">dangerous levels of lead in applesauce</a>, likely stemming from a cinnamon spice grinder. This highlights the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/world/europe/lead-applesauce-food-safety.html">Food and Drug Administration’s failures</a> in keeping lead out of the U.S. food supply. </p>
<h2>Fragmented testing</h2>
<p>Blood lead screening <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/data/national.htm">serves as the first line of defense</a> against lead exposure, particularly in high-risk individuals and primarily in children. However, <a href="https://toxicfreefuture.org/research/children-at-risk/state-lead-screening-policies/">testing protocols and recommendations vary widely</a>, and most states lack universal testing mandates. </p>
<p>Even in cases where universal screening programs exist, the data obtained can be insufficient. This is because blood tests capture only recent exposure, and universal testing oftentimes mandates only one test of children within a six-year window. </p>
<p>This fragmented system, combined with research indicating that many doctors <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2023-109210">deviate from lead testing guidelines</a>, allows exposures to go undetected until irreversible neurological damage has been done. </p>
<p>We are hopeful that as research like ours draws more attention to the gravity of this issue, universal, standardized screening will become the norm across the U.S. This would save many children – and generations to come – from ongoing and preventable exposures.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Lead toxicity doesn’t affect just children.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>How testing is done</h2>
<p>Monitoring lead levels typically involves a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/blood-lead-levels.htm">simple blood test</a>, generally ordered by your doctor. These tests are widely available but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129832">can easily be inaccurate</a> based on when the test was taken. Since <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41370-018-0036-y">blood lead levels can change quickly</a>, children who get tested several weeks after exposure could falsely test as normal. </p>
<p>Moreover, because there is no requirement for doctors to be trained in how to test for and treat lead exposure, many pediatricians <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2023-109210">lack awareness about lead screening protocols</a>. As a result, many at-risk people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP10335">are not being tested</a>. </p>
<p>When tests are given, they may yield inaccurate results due to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41370-018-0036-y">rapid changes in blood lead</a>. Or sometimes results are not properly reported to local health departments. Further complicating this, in 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared that the country’s progress in removing lead from gasoline was a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6019a5.htm">great public health achievment</a>. As a result, many lead-testing programs in the U.S. were discontinued, leading to critical information gaps. </p>
<p>However, there is some reason for optimism. Some state-based lead surveillance programs that were phased out in the early 2000s have been returning in recent years. A good example is my home state of Indiana. A law that <a href="https://www.in.gov/health/lead-and-healthy-homes-division/information-for-health-care-providers/testing-requirements/">went into effect on Jan. 1, 2023</a>, requires all health care providers serving children to offer lead testing to their patients. </p>
<p>Efforts from statewide programs like these will lead to more opportunities to inform physicians and to screen vulnerable populations.</p>
<h2>Ways to get tested</h2>
<p>Blood is by far the most widely used indicator for lead exposure. However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-018-0036-y">in blood, lead dissipates quickly</a>, and after about a few weeks to a month, an exposure that was high enough to cause damage is no longer measurable from blood lead.</p>
<p>As part of my research, we have developed a handheld device that is able to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/1354750X.2016.1139183">noninvasively measure lead from bone</a> in minutes. Picture a Star Trek tricorder. We have patented the method we use to calculate lead in bone but currently have not commercialized it. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579700/original/file-20240304-28-hr1ffe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A hand wrapped around the handle of a small black, silver and gray lead-measuring device." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579700/original/file-20240304-28-hr1ffe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579700/original/file-20240304-28-hr1ffe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579700/original/file-20240304-28-hr1ffe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579700/original/file-20240304-28-hr1ffe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579700/original/file-20240304-28-hr1ffe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579700/original/file-20240304-28-hr1ffe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579700/original/file-20240304-28-hr1ffe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author holds the Star Trek-esque device that he and his team developed at Purdue University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aaron James Specht</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>Bone lead is reflective of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9783">years to decades of exposure</a> and is a more accurate test to reflect the permanence of damage induced by lead in the body. Bone lead has also been shown to have a strong relationship with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/reveh.2009.24.1.15">lead accumulation in the brain</a>, since lead hijacks places in both the bone and the brain where calcium is normally present. </p>
<p>Efficient and routine blood lead testing in children during their developmental stages could definitively identify exposure sources as they emerge. </p>
<p>While bone measurements allow researchers and physicians to effectively <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6579/aa904f">measure years to decades of exposure</a>, health departments and the CDC currently lack the infrastructure to deploy this technology in communities that are highly affected by lead. </p>
<h2>What you can do</h2>
<p>People concerned about lead exposure <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/testing-children-for-lead-poisoning.htm#">should request a blood lead test</a> from their doctor. Parents of young children should proactively ask pediatricians to conduct lead screening. If you live in an old home, especially one with peeling paint, you can contact your local health department to test for possible lead paint. </p>
<p>Additionally, your local water service provider should be able to tell you if lead water lines are in use leading to your home. Unfortunately, lead has no particular smell or taste to differentiate it from other possible contaminants.</p>
<p>Children and adults with elevated blood lead levels should talk to their pediatrician or doctor about effective <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/advisory/acclpp/actions-blls.htm">follow-up testing</a> and potential dietary changes to promote lead excretion naturally. </p>
<p>For very high exposures, a treatment known as <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/patient_treatment.html#">chelation therapy</a>, which involves an oral medication that binds to lead so that it can be excreted in urine, has been shown to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-200011000-00007">effective at reducing blood lead levels</a>. </p>
<p>These people should also notify their local health department, which can identify and remove lead sources in their environment to eliminate the risk to both current and future residents.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Specht receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, and JPB Foundation. </span></em></p>Although the US banned lead-based paint in 1978, homes built before then commonly contain lead paint.Aaron Specht, Assistant Professor of Health Physics, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2147842023-10-05T12:33:59Z2023-10-05T12:33:59ZHow a disgruntled scientist looking to prove his food wasn’t fresh discovered radioactive tracers and won a Nobel Prize 80 years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551579/original/file-20231002-27-bnczk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=392%2C8%2C5059%2C3473&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">George De Hevesy working in his lab at Stockholm University in 1944. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hungarian-radiochemist-george-de-hevesy-at-work-in-his-news-photo/870101654?adppopup=true">Keystone Features/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each October, the Nobel Prizes celebrate a handful of groundbreaking scientific achievements. And while many of the awarded discoveries revolutionize the field of science, some originate in unconventional places. For <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1943/hevesy/biographical/">George de Hevesy</a>, the 1943 Nobel Laureate in chemistry who discovered radioactive tracers, that place was a boarding house cafeteria in Manchester, U.K., in 1911. </p>
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<span class="caption">Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/George_de_Hevesy.jpg">Magnus Manske</a></span>
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<p>De Hevesey had the sneaking suspicion that the staff of the boarding house cafeteria where he ate at every day was reusing leftovers from the dinner plates – each day’s soup seemed to contain all of the prior day’s ingredients. So he came up with a plan to test his theory. </p>
<p>At the time, de Hevesy was working with radioactive material. He <a href="https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/jnmt/24/4/291.full.pdf">sprinkled a small amount</a> of radioactive material in his leftover meat. A few days later, he took an electroscope with him to the kitchen and <a href="https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/jnmt/24/4/291.full.pdf">measured the radioactivity</a> in the prepared food. </p>
<p>His landlady, who was to blame for the recycled food, exclaimed “this is magic” when de Hevesy showed her his results, but really, it was just the first successful radioactive tracer experiment. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vlmJRrsAAAAJ&hl=en">We are</a> a team <a href="https://www.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty-research/faculty-members/liddick-sean.aspx">of chemists</a> and physicists <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MkkjF8YAAAAJ&hl=en">who work</a> at the <a href="https://frib.msu.edu">Facility for Rare Isotope Beams</a>, located at Michigan State University. De Hevesy’s early research in the field has revolutionized the way that modern scientists like us use radioactive material, and it has led to a variety of scientific and medical advances.</p>
<h2>The nuisance of lead</h2>
<p>A year before conducting his recycled ingredients experiment, Hungary-born de Hevesy had <a href="https://orau.org/health-physics-museum/articles/four-tales-george-de-hevesy.html">traveled to the U.K.</a> to start work with nuclear scientist <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1908/rutherford/facts/">Ernest Rutherford</a>, who’d won a Nobel Prize just two years prior.</p>
<p>Rutherford was at the time <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/ed040p36">working with a radioactive substance</a> called radium D, a valuable byproduct of radium because of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/half-life-radioactivity">its long half-life</a> (22 years). However, Rutherford couldn’t use his radium D sample, as it had large amounts of lead mixed in. </p>
<p>When de Hevesy arrived, Rutherford asked him <a href="https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/jnmt/24/4/291.full.pdf">to separate the radium D</a> from the nuisance lead. The nuisance lead was made up of a combination of stable isotopes of lead (Pb). Each isotope had the same number of protons (82 for lead), but a different number of neutrons.</p>
<p>De Hevesy worked on separating the radium D from the natural lead using chemical separation techniques for almost two years, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1943/hevesy/lecture/">with no success</a>. The reason for his failure was that, unknown to anyone at the time, radium D was actually a different form of lead – namely the radioactive isotope, or radioisotope Pb-210. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, de Hevesy’s failure led to an even bigger discovery. The creative scientist figured out that if he could not separate radium D from natural lead, he could use it as a tracer of lead.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/hunting-for-rare-isotopes-the-mysterious-radioactive-atomic-nuclei-that-will-be-in-tomorrows-technology-86177">Radioactive isotopes</a>, like Pb-210, are unstable isotopes, which means that over time they will transform into a different element. During this transformation, called radioactive decay, they typically release particles or light, which can be <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/radioactivity">detected as radioactivity</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Through radioactivity, an unstable isotope can turn from one element to another.</span></figcaption>
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<p>This radioactivity acts as a signature indicating the presence of the radioactive isotope. This critical property of radioisotopes allows them to be used as tracers.</p>
<h2>Radium D as a tracer</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.iaea.org/topics/radiotracers">A tracer</a> is a substance that stands out in a crowd of similar material because it has unique qualities that make it easy to track. </p>
<p>For example, if you have a group of kindergartners going on a field trip and one of them is wearing a smartwatch, you can tell if the group went to the playground by tracking the GPS signal on the smartwatch. In de Hevesy’s case, the kindergartners were the lead atoms, the smart watch was radium D, and the GPS signal was the emitted radioactivity. </p>
<p>In the 1910s, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00000541">Vienna Institute of Radium Research</a> had a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2013.0070">larger collection of radium</a> and its byproducts than any other institution. To continue his experiments with radium D, de Hevesy moved to Vienna in 1912. </p>
<p>He collaborated with Fritz Paneth, who had also attempted the impossible task of separating radium D from lead without success. The two scientists “spiked” samples of different chemical compounds with small amounts of a radioactive tracer. This way they could study chemical processes by tracking the movement of the radioactivity <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/hevesy-lecture.pdf">across different chemical reactions</a></p>
<p>De Hevesy continued his work studying chemical processes using different isotopic markers for many years. He even was the first to introduce nonradioactive tracers. One nonradioactive tracer he studied was a heavier isotope of hydrogen, <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/what-is-deuterium">called deuterium</a>. Deuterium is 10,000 times less abundant than common hydrogen, but is roughly twice as heavy, which makes it easier to separate the two.</p>
<p>De Hevesy and his co-author used deuterium to track water in their bodies. In their investigations, they took turns ingesting samples and measuring the deuterium in their urine to study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/134879a0">the elimination of water</a> from the human body. </p>
<p>De Hevesy was awarded the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1943/summary/">1943 Nobel Prize in chemistry</a> “for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes.” </p>
<h2>Radioactive tracers today</h2>
<p>More than a century after de Hevesy’s experiments, many fields now routinely use radioactive tracers, from medicine to materials science and biology. </p>
<p>These tracers can monitor the progression of disease in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23095023">medical procedures</a>, the uptake of nutrients in <a href="https://doi.org/10.2976/1.2921207">plant biology</a>, the age and flow of <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-249-2020">water in aquifers</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.110076">measurement of wear and corrosion of materials</a>, among other applications. Radioisotopes allow researchers to follow the paths of nutrients and drugs in living systems without invasively cutting the tissue.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551730/original/file-20231003-15-397yxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four brain scans, two in contrasted colors with the background shown as white and the brain as gray, two with the background shown as black and the brain shown either as gray or orange." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551730/original/file-20231003-15-397yxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551730/original/file-20231003-15-397yxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551730/original/file-20231003-15-397yxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551730/original/file-20231003-15-397yxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551730/original/file-20231003-15-397yxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551730/original/file-20231003-15-397yxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551730/original/file-20231003-15-397yxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Radioactive tracers, seen in the top left photo as a white spot and indicated by an arrow in the top right, are often used today in brain scans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/positron-emission-tomography-ct-scan-uses-a-royalty-free-image/1463929233?phrase=brain+scan+radioactive+tracer&adppopup=true">mr. suphachai praserdumrongchai/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In modern research, scientists focus on producing new isotopes and on developing procedures to use radioactive tracers more efficiently. The <a href="https://frib.msu.edu/">Facility for Rare Isotope Beams</a>, or FRIB, where the three of us work, has a program dedicated to the production and harvesting of unique radioisotopes. These radioisotopes are then used in medical and other applications. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/powerful-linear-accelerator-begins-smashing-atoms-2-scientists-on-the-team-explain-how-it-could-reveal-rare-forms-of-matter-185754">FRIB produces radioactive beams</a> for its basic science program. In the production process, a large number of unused isotopes are collected in a tank of water, where they can be later <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D0NJ04411C">isolated and studied</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552099/original/file-20231004-26-tls88s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two scientists, a woman wearing a white shirt and a man wearing a dark blue shirt, squat on the concrete ground in a laboartory with lots of machinery and shelves, and a green lit ceiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552099/original/file-20231004-26-tls88s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552099/original/file-20231004-26-tls88s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552099/original/file-20231004-26-tls88s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552099/original/file-20231004-26-tls88s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552099/original/file-20231004-26-tls88s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552099/original/file-20231004-26-tls88s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552099/original/file-20231004-26-tls88s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists Greg Severin and Katharina Domnanich at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One recent study involved the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D0NJ04411C">isolation of the radioisotope Zn-62</a> from the irradiated water. This was a challenging task considering there were 100 quadrillion times more water molecules than Zn-62 atoms. Zn-62 is an important radioactive tracer utilized to follow the metabolism of zinc in plants and in nuclear medicine.</p>
<p>Eighty years ago, de Hevesy managed to take a dead-end separation project and turn it into a discovery that created a new scientific field. Radioactive tracers have already changed human lives in so many ways. Nevertheless, scientists are continuing to develop new radioactive tracers and find innovative ways to use them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Artemis Spyrou receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Liddick receives funding from the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration. He is affiliated with the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharina Domnanich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some Nobel Prize-winning ideas originate in strange places, but still go on to revolutionize the scientific field. George de Hevesy’s research on radioactive tracers is one such example.Artemis Spyrou, Professor of Nuclear Physics, Michigan State UniversityKatharina Domnanich, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Michigan State UniversitySean Liddick, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2122562023-09-07T12:23:32Z2023-09-07T12:23:32ZSecondhand smoke may be a substantial contributor to lead levels found in children and adolescents, new study finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545649/original/file-20230830-19-lkn4ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C0%2C8660%2C5717&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Childhood exposure to lead can limit cognitive development and cause a drop in IQ.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mother-smoking-near-children-royalty-free-image/1291760178?phrase=secondhand+smoke+children&adppopup=true">Yamasan/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Secondhand smoke may be an important but overlooked source of chronic lead exposure in kids and adolescents. That is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16005-y">key finding of our recent study</a>, published in the journal BMC Public Health.</p>
<p>We analyzed national data on blood lead levels and secondhand smoke exposure in 2,815 U.S. children and teenagers ages 6 to 19 from 2015 to 2018. We looked at levels of lead and a nicotine metabolite – a substance known as cotinine produced in the body’s chemical process that forms when tobacco smoke is inhaled. Levels of cotinine indicate exposure to tobacco smoke.</p>
<p>We found that the average blood lead levels in the intermediate and high tobacco smoke exposure groups were 18% and 29% higher, respectively, than those in the group with the lowest tobacco smoke exposure. The lowest lead exposure group was comparable to the U.S. average. A greater number of boys had detectable lead levels in their blood, as did a greater number of Black children and adolescents, compared with the other ethnic groups we studied. </p>
<p>Elevated blood levels were more common in children ages 6 to 10 than in older participants. Notably, children from low-income households showed 27% higher blood lead levels compared with those from high-income households. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L-crRQLn_p0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The damage lead does to the body is irreversible.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Lead, unlike many other toxins, does not get diluted when exposure decreases. Nor does the body excrete it naturally. Instead, it accumulates in the bones and leaches into blood. The only way to remove it is through an <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/patient_treatment.html">oral medical treatment</a>.</p>
<p>Exposure to lead can cause numerous and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/reveh.2009.24.1.15">severe neurological problems</a>, including nerve damage, cognitive problems, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2118631119">loss of IQ points</a> and possibly even conditions such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.2174/156720512800617991">Alzheimer’s disease</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2011.11.008">schizophrenia</a>.</p>
<p>Lead exposure is more harmful to younger children than older children and adults because their bodies are still developing and they are growing so rapidly.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/populations.htm">Children at high-exposure risk</a> often come from low-income households in older homes built before 1978, when lead paint was still used. Young children’s frequent hand-to-mouth activity provides a pathway for lead exposure at home. Lead-containing water pipes in these older, low-income housing areas also contribute to the issue.</p>
<p>Children and others can also be exposed to lead through a variety of everyday household items, including <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/environmental-contaminants-food/questions-and-answers-lead-glazed-traditional-pottery">some ceramic cookware and dishes</a>, some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0009922806294068">vinyl lunchboxes</a> – especially those manufactured outside the United States – many common <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/food-drink/a38413337/heavy-metals-found-in-herbs-spices/">spices</a> and some <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-toys-lead/lead-found-in-toys-and-backpacks-in-u-s-stores-idUKN1023090320071010">toys</a>, <a href="https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/potential-contaminants-cosmetics/lead-cosmetics">hair-coloring products and cosmetics</a>. Lead exposure has even been traced to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.2754">some candies</a> from Mexico.</p>
<p>Over the past four decades, U.S. regulators have banned <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/sources/paint.htm#">lead-based paint for residential use</a> and <a href="https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/gasoline/history-of-gasoline.php#">leaded gasoline</a>. This has led to a significant decrease in lead exposure from major traditional sources. </p>
<p>Despite continued efforts, lead exposure continues to pose a risk. Our findings help create awareness of the link between secondhand tobacco smoke and lead exposure, especially for young people. Approximately 35% of U.S. children, or over 23 million, were <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db348.htm">exposed to secondhand smoke between 2013 and 2016</a>, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>We are working within our local areas to educate parents and school administrators about the dangers of lead poisoning, including exposure from secondhand smoke. Our efforts include encouraging individuals and communities to test their drinking water for lead and to take actions to reduce children’s lead exposure from drinking water.</p>
<p>We plan to conduct further studies to quantify the contribution of various sources to lead exposure. We believe that this research will enhance our understanding of children’s exposure and contribute to the improvement of environmental health disparities.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212256/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Researchers found that children exposed to secondhand smoke had higher than average levels of lead in their blood.Genny Carrillo, Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, Texas A&M UniversityTaehyun Roh, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2104522023-08-30T12:16:10Z2023-08-30T12:16:10Z50 years after the Bunker Hill mine fire caused one of the largest lead-poisoning cases in US history, Idaho’s Silver Valley is still at risk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544335/original/file-20230823-21-itpz3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C4885%2C3224&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Waterways and communities for miles around Idaho's Bunker Hill mine were contaminated with lead after the 1973 fire.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/scenic-river-in-cataldo-idaho-royalty-free-image/489436366">gjohnstonphoto/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Sept. 3, 1973, a fire swept through the baghouse of the Bunker Hill mine in Idaho’s Silver Valley. The building was designed to filter pollutants produced by smelting, the melting of rocks that separates metal from its ore. The gases produced in this process carried poisons, including lead.</p>
<p>At the time, the <a href="https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/leaded">prices of lead</a> and <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/1470/historical-silver-prices-100-year-chart">silver were climbing</a> toward all-time highs. Rather than wait for new filters and repairs, company officials kept the mine running. <a href="https://www.oupress.com/9780806138985/idahos-bunker-hill/">They increased production</a>, bypassed the filtration steps and, <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11359/superfund-and-mining-megasites-lessons-from-the-coeur-dalene-river">for eleven months</a>, dumped noxious gases directly into the surrounding area.</p>
<p>Then, horses in the area <a href="https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/leaded">began dying</a>. </p>
<p>When data on children’s blood lead levels began to arrive in September 1974, one year after the fire, the results were shocking. The fire became one of the largest single lead-poisoning events in U.S. history. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A large industrial complex lit up against snow." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544196/original/file-20230823-15-j8fnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544196/original/file-20230823-15-j8fnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544196/original/file-20230823-15-j8fnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544196/original/file-20230823-15-j8fnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544196/original/file-20230823-15-j8fnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544196/original/file-20230823-15-j8fnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544196/original/file-20230823-15-j8fnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bunker Hill smelter in the 1970s. The mine closed in 1991, but planning is underway in 2023 to restart it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bunker_Hill_smelter_operating_in_winter_snow,_1970s.jpg">US EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Without filters, the mine operations deposited an estimated <a href="https://www.restorationpartnership.org/pdf/d-Chapter_2_Hazardous_Substance_Sources.pdf">35 tons of lead per month</a> in the area, four times more than before the fire. Between January and September 1974, it also released more than 2 tons of arsenic and 2.5 tons of mercury, among other metals and toxic chemicals, according to data <a href="https://www.restorationpartnership.org/pdf/d-Chapter_2_Hazardous_Substance_Sources.pdf">collected by Restoration Partnership</a>.</p>
<p>Lead still contaminates the soil across <a href="https://www.deq.idaho.gov/waste-management-and-remediation/mining-in-idaho/bunker-hill-superfund-site/">Silver Valley</a> today, and it continues to wash down tributaries and into the Coeur d’Alene River and Lake Coeur d’Alene. Many people in this fast-growing region are unaware of the risks.</p>
<h2>How lead harms human health</h2>
<p>Our bodies use metals like zinc, iron and calcium. However, we have zero need for lead. Its chemical composition makes it both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/intox-2015-0009">highly toxic and able to infiltrate almost every organ in the body</a>.</p>
<p>Lead exposure can cause <a href="https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00158.2008">high blood pressure and cardiac disease</a>. It can also cause problems with <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health">brain development, kidney function and reproductive health</a>, including <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/pregnant.htm">miscarriages, prematurity and low birth weight</a>. Children are especially susceptible to lead’s toxic effect on the central nervous system; they absorb it up to <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.303003">17 times more</a> readily than adults, and their brains are still developing.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/76RKSQgduVQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">What lead poisoning does to a child’s brain. PBS.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s reference value for levels of lead in blood has changed as knowledge about this potent neurotoxin has evolved. In 1973, a blood lead level of less than 40 <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/docs/lepac/blrv-recommendation-report-508.pdf">micrograms per deciliter</a> in children was vaguely defined as “undue lead absorption.” In 1991, anything above 10 micrograms per deciliter was considered a “level of concern.”</p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/data/blood-lead-reference-value.htm">3.5 micrograms per deciliter</a> is the reference value, meant to identify the 2.5% of children with the highest blood lead levels. The CDC no longer uses “level of concern” as a threshold, because there is <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health">no safe blood lead level in children</a>.</p>
<h2>Children’s health after the Baghouse Fire</h2>
<p>The children of the Silver Valley were exposed to extremely high levels of poisons after the Baghouse Fire at the Bunker Hill mine.</p>
<p>Ninety-nine percent of children within a mile of the smelter who were tested after the fire – 173 out of 175 kids – had blood lead levels of 40 micrograms per deciliter or higher. Their <a href="https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/leaded">average blood lead level</a> was 67.4 micrograms per deciliter. A 1-year-old tested at 164 micrograms per deciliter, the <a href="https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/leaded">highest ever recorded in a child</a>.</p>
<p>Cognitive impairment in children, as measured by loss of IQ points, can occur at levels of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-022-01963-y">less than 5 micrograms per deciliter</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A donut chart with concentric rings for each distance shows almost all children had dangerously high high blood lead levels close to the smelter. Even 6 to 15 miles away (10 to 24 kilometers), one-fifth of children had exceptionally high levels." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545366/original/file-20230829-15-refhca.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545366/original/file-20230829-15-refhca.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545366/original/file-20230829-15-refhca.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545366/original/file-20230829-15-refhca.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545366/original/file-20230829-15-refhca.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545366/original/file-20230829-15-refhca.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545366/original/file-20230829-15-refhca.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/leaded">Adapted from Leaded: The Poisoning of Idaho's Silver Valley</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To put the Silver Valley numbers into context, the average blood lead level for children in Flint, Michigan, at the height of the lead-pipe water crisis in 2015 was <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180326090313.htm">1.3 micrograms per deciliter</a>, and 21 children had blood lead levels <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2016/01/22/flint-children-lead-exposure/">over 10 micrograms per deciliter</a>.</p>
<p>It is difficult to assess the extent of the damage from the Baghouse Fire in the children of the Silver Valley. Doctors in the 1970s weren’t able to test for cognitive and neurologic problems in the most vulnerable children, birth to 3 years old. Michael C. Mix describes in “<a href="https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/leaded">Leaded: The Poisoning of Idaho’s Silver Valley</a>” how the politically powerful company that owned the mine also suppressed and distorted health findings. Blood lead levels in children in the area remained higher than 40 micrograms per deciliter into 1980.</p>
<h2>Continuing health risk in Silver Valley</h2>
<p>The legacy of the Baghouse Fire continues to haunt Silver Valley, but that incident 50 years ago is only part of the picture. Decades of contamination from other mines in the area poses further risks.</p>
<p>At its height, the Silver Valley area had over 200 active mines. Today, it is the largest contiguous Superfund site in the nation – 1,500 square miles (3,885 square kilometers) across northern Idaho and eastern Washington. Multiple agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Panhandle Health District, the Coeur d’Alene Trust and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe (Schitsu’umsh), are active in <a href="https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.Cleanup&id=1000195#bkground">monitoring and cleanup operations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544192/original/file-20230823-25-2hf4yv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map is pocked with x's showing mine sites across the region, mostly east of the Bunker Hill fire site." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544192/original/file-20230823-25-2hf4yv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544192/original/file-20230823-25-2hf4yv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544192/original/file-20230823-25-2hf4yv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544192/original/file-20230823-25-2hf4yv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544192/original/file-20230823-25-2hf4yv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544192/original/file-20230823-25-2hf4yv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544192/original/file-20230823-25-2hf4yv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hundreds of old mine sites dot the region east of Lake Coeur d'Alene.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://panhandlehealthdistrict.org/">Panhandle Health District</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Early efforts to clean up contamination from the fire concentrated on residential areas in “The Box,” a 21-square-mile area (54 square kilometers) around the old smelter site and the towns of Kellogg, Smelterville and Pinehurst. Workers dug up contaminated earth and removed it, and officials monitored the environment and human health.</p>
<p>The cleanup today is much more extensive and ongoing, with efforts focused on cleaning up the old mine and mill sites and recreational areas.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544199/original/file-20230823-29-57d7ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map shows the Superfund site including Cuoer d'Alene Lake" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544199/original/file-20230823-29-57d7ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544199/original/file-20230823-29-57d7ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544199/original/file-20230823-29-57d7ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544199/original/file-20230823-29-57d7ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544199/original/file-20230823-29-57d7ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544199/original/file-20230823-29-57d7ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544199/original/file-20230823-29-57d7ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex Superfund Site covers about 1,500 square miles across northern Idaho and eastern Washington. ‘The Box’ is shaded in gray.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=1000195">EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544393/original/file-20230823-21-bhorjz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map shows a boundary around the lake and along the river." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544393/original/file-20230823-21-bhorjz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544393/original/file-20230823-21-bhorjz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544393/original/file-20230823-21-bhorjz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544393/original/file-20230823-21-bhorjz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544393/original/file-20230823-21-bhorjz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544393/original/file-20230823-21-bhorjz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544393/original/file-20230823-21-bhorjz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The EPA’s active area within the Superfund site includes long stretches of the Coeur d'Alene River and Lake Coeur d'Alene. The EPA notes that there are also sites with contamination further downstream in the Spokane River, Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lead does not biodegrade. It’s in the soil, along waterways and even visible in sediment to the naked eye. It is estimated that the Coeur d’Alene River delivers about <a href="https://www.spokanepublicradio.org/regional-news/2022-03-24/coeur-dalene-basin-cleanup-to-expand-to-lower-basin">200 tons of lead</a> to Lake Coeur d’Alene every year.</p>
<h2>Swan deaths show the continuing risk</h2>
<p>Blood lead levels in the area have come down dramatically since 1973, but they are still concerning. In 2022, the average blood lead level for children in “The Box” was estimated at <a href="https://panhandlehealthdistrict.org/">2.3 micrograms per deciliter</a>, above <a href="https://www.epa.gov/americaschildrenenvironment/biomonitoring-lead">the U.S. average</a>. The average for the surrounding area <a href="https://panhandlehealthdistrict.org/">was higher, 3.3 micrograms per deciliter</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A dead swan along a riverway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544200/original/file-20230823-21-wvd9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544200/original/file-20230823-21-wvd9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544200/original/file-20230823-21-wvd9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544200/original/file-20230823-21-wvd9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544200/original/file-20230823-21-wvd9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544200/original/file-20230823-21-wvd9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544200/original/file-20230823-21-wvd9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tundra swans, which dig in the soil along streams for food, have been dying in northern Idaho.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://idfg.idaho.gov/press/tundra-swan-deaths-continue-lower-coeur-dalene-river-basin">CC Kajsa Van de Riet/IDEQ</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lead also affects area wildlife. <a href="https://semspub.epa.gov/work/10/100447187.pdf">Over 95% of wetlands</a> in the Lower Basin contain sediment that is toxic to wildlife. Tundra swans, whose eating habits make them very susceptible to heavy metal poisoning, are a recent casualty. For these migratory birds, the area is a stopover. Since 2008, average swan deaths are estimated at 50 to 60 birds per year. <a href="https://idfg.idaho.gov/press/tundra-swan-deaths-continue-lower-coeur-dalene-river-basin">There were over 300 bird deaths</a> documented in 2022; a <a href="https://semspub.epa.gov/work/10/100447187.pdf">study is underway</a> into the cause.</p>
<p>To complicate matters, many local residents have forgotten or never learned about the Baghouse Fire and the environmental issues associated with the site. Others choose to simply disbelieve the harmfulness of lead.</p>
<h2>As Idaho’s population booms, people aren’t aware</h2>
<p>Today, Idaho is one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S., with an influx of new residents oblivious to the local history and unaware of the threat that lurks below their feet and in the beaches of the beautiful lakes and rivers in the area. With population growth comes development, digging and disturbing contaminated soil.</p>
<p>Even normal weather conditions – from dry windy days that stir up lead dust particles to heavy rainfalls that mobilize contaminated sediments – can have detrimental effects on human health and on the environment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544197/original/file-20230823-29-pgg37e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of a large sign with warnings about soils and sediments containing harmful levels of lead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544197/original/file-20230823-29-pgg37e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544197/original/file-20230823-29-pgg37e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544197/original/file-20230823-29-pgg37e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544197/original/file-20230823-29-pgg37e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544197/original/file-20230823-29-pgg37e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544197/original/file-20230823-29-pgg37e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544197/original/file-20230823-29-pgg37e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A warning reminds visitors on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes of the area’s lead risks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trail_of_the_Coeur_d%27_Alenes_(10490158534).jpg">Robert Ashworth via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Health risks remain, particularly along the banks and shores of the South Fork and the main Coeur d’Alene River, which are now popular recreation areas. Advisories about the lead risk in fish are still common, <a href="https://doh.wa.gov/data-and-statistical-reports/washington-tracking-network-wtn/fish-advisories/fish-consumption-advisories-washington-state">even downstream in Spokane</a>, Washington.</p>
<p>Children and pregnant women are the most vulnerable; <a href="https://peht.ucsf.edu/search.php?pane=reference&topic=lead">lead crosses the placenta, and it is present in breast milk</a>. Major outreach efforts are underway to educate those living, working or visiting the area.</p>
<p>Idaho’s <a href="https://panhandlehealthdistrict.org/">Panhandle Health District</a> offers free lead screenings year-round to anyone living or spending time in the area. In-home follow-ups are offered to those found to have elevated lead levels. Meanwhile, the cleanup, which started in 1986, will continue for decades to come. </p>
<p><em>Mary Rehnborg, program manager for the Institutional Controls Program in the Panhandle Health District, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Schiavenato does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A fire and decades of silver and lead mining created the largest contiguous Superfund site in the nation in what today is one of the fastest-growing states. It includes popular Lake Coeur d’Alene.Martin Schiavenato, Assistant Professor of Nursing, Gonzaga UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1874422022-08-09T00:52:39Z2022-08-09T00:52:39ZBackyard hens’ eggs contain 40 times more lead on average than shop eggs, research finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478187/original/file-20220809-16-86bvbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C33%2C4408%2C2908&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s nothing like the fresh eggs from your own hens, the <a href="https://www.chickenguard.com.au/chicken-keeping-is-on-the-rise-australia/">more than 400,000</a> Australians who keep backyard chooks will tell you. Unfortunately, it’s often not just freshness and flavour that set their eggs apart from those in the shops. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119798">newly published research</a>* found backyard hens’ eggs contain, on average, more than 40 times the lead levels of commercially produced eggs. Almost one in two hens in our Sydney study had significant lead levels in their blood. Similarly, about half the eggs analysed contained lead at levels that may pose a health concern for consumers.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-verdicts-in-we-must-better-protect-kids-from-toxic-lead-exposure-41969">Even low levels</a> of lead exposure are considered <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp13.pdf">harmful to human health</a>, including among other effects <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30025-2/fulltext">cardiovascular disease</a> and decreased IQ and kidney function. Indeed, the World Health Organization has <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health">stated</a> there is no safe level of lead exposure.</p>
<p>So how do you know whether this is a likely problem in the eggs you’re getting from backyard hens? It depends on lead levels in your soil, which vary across our cities. We mapped the areas of high and low risk for hens and their eggs in our biggest cities – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – and present these maps here.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119798">Our research</a> details lead poisoning of backyard chickens and explains what this means for urban gardening and food production. In older homes close to city centres, contaminated soils can greatly increase people’s exposure to lead through eating eggs from backyard hens. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="chickens scratching in the dirt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476428/original/file-20220728-20511-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476428/original/file-20220728-20511-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476428/original/file-20220728-20511-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476428/original/file-20220728-20511-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476428/original/file-20220728-20511-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476428/original/file-20220728-20511-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476428/original/file-20220728-20511-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chickens love scratching and pecking in the dirt. Unfortunately, that’s how lead from the soil gets into them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What did the study find?</h2>
<p>Most lead gets into the hens as they scratch in the dirt and peck food from the ground. </p>
<p>We assessed trace metal contamination in backyard chickens and their eggs from garden soils across 55 Sydney homes. We also explored other possible sources of contamination such as animal drinking water and chicken feed. </p>
<p>Our data confirmed what we had anticipated from our analysis of more than 25,000 garden samples from Australia gardens collected via the <a href="https://www.360dustanalysis.com/">VegeSafe program</a>. Lead is the <a href="https://www.mapmyenvironment.com/">contaminant of most concern</a>.</p>
<p>The amount of lead in the soil was significantly associated with lead concentrations in chicken blood and eggs. We found potential contamination from drinking water and commercial feed supplies in some samples but it is not a significant source of exposure. </p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aehBQA0lH2M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Unlike for <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/managing-individual-exposure-lead-australia#block-views-block-file-attachments-content-block-1">humans</a>, there are no guidelines for blood lead levels for chickens or other birds. <a href="https://www.aavac.com.au/files/2015-16.pdf">Veterinary assessments</a> and research indicate levels of 20 micrograms per decilitre (µg/dL) or more may harm their health. Our analysis of 69 backyard chickens across the 55 participants’ homes showed 45% had blood lead levels above 20µg/dL. </p>
<p>We analysed eggs from the same birds. There are no food standards for trace metals in eggs in Australia or <a href="https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/sh-proxy/en/?lnk=1&url=https%253A%252F%252Fworkspace.fao.org%252Fsites%252Fcodex%252FStandards%252FCXS%2B193-1995%252FCXS_193e.pdf">globally</a>. However, in the <a href="https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/publications/Pages/25th-Australian-Total-Diet-Study.aspx">19th Australian Total Diet Study</a>, lead levels were less than 5µg/kg in a small sample of shop-bought eggs. </p>
<p>The average level of lead in eggs from the backyard chickens in our study was 301µg/kg. By comparison, it was 7.2µg/kg in the nine commercial free-range eggs we analysed. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4037389/">International research</a> indicates that eating one egg a day with a lead level of less than 100µg/kg would result in an estimated blood lead increase of less than 1μg/dL in children. That’s around the level <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/212_04/mja250427.pdf">found in Australian children</a> not living in areas affected by lead mines or smelters. The <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/managing-individual-exposure-lead-australia#block-views-block-file-attachments-content-block-1">level of concern used in Australia</a> for investigating exposure sources is 5µg/dL. </p>
<p>Some 51% of the eggs we analysed exceeded the 100µg/kg “food safety” threshold. To keep egg lead below 100μg/kg, our modelling of the relationship between lead in soil, chickens and eggs showed soil lead needs to be under 117mg/kg. This is much lower than the Australian residential guideline for soils of 300mg/kg. </p>
<p>To protect chicken health and keep their blood lead below 20µg/kg, soil concentrations need to be under 166mg/kg. Again, this is much lower than the guideline.</p>
<h2>How did we map the risks across cities?</h2>
<p>We used our garden soil trace metal database (more than 7,000 homes and 25,000 samples) to map the locations in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne most at risk from high lead values.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476799/original/file-20220801-13622-gfamgw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Sydney showing areas of high and low lead risk for backyard chickens" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476799/original/file-20220801-13622-gfamgw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476799/original/file-20220801-13622-gfamgw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476799/original/file-20220801-13622-gfamgw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476799/original/file-20220801-13622-gfamgw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476799/original/file-20220801-13622-gfamgw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476799/original/file-20220801-13622-gfamgw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476799/original/file-20220801-13622-gfamgw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Levels of lead risk for backyard chickens across Sydney. Dark green dots indicate areas with safe lead levels. Light green and yellow dots are areas over the safe lead level. Orange and red dots indicate areas with high levels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Map: Max M. Gillings, Mark Patrick Taylor</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476800/original/file-20220801-44691-cb37jb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Melbourne showing areas of high and low lead risk for backyard chickens" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476800/original/file-20220801-44691-cb37jb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476800/original/file-20220801-44691-cb37jb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476800/original/file-20220801-44691-cb37jb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476800/original/file-20220801-44691-cb37jb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476800/original/file-20220801-44691-cb37jb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476800/original/file-20220801-44691-cb37jb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476800/original/file-20220801-44691-cb37jb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of Melbourne showing levels of lead risk for backyard chickens. Dark green dots indicate areas with safe lead levels. Light green and yellow dots are areas over the safe lead level. Orange and red dots indicate areas with high levels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Map: Max M. Gillings, Mark Patrick Taylor</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476801/original/file-20220801-13622-30yjyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Brisbane showing areas of high and low lead risk for backyard chickens" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476801/original/file-20220801-13622-30yjyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476801/original/file-20220801-13622-30yjyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476801/original/file-20220801-13622-30yjyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476801/original/file-20220801-13622-30yjyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476801/original/file-20220801-13622-30yjyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476801/original/file-20220801-13622-30yjyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476801/original/file-20220801-13622-30yjyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of Brisbane showing levels of lead risk for backyard chickens. Dark green dots indicate areas with safe lead levels. Light green and yellow dots are areas over the safe lead level. Orange and red dots indicate areas with high levels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Map: Max M. Gillings, Mark Patrick Taylor</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Deeper analysis of the data showed older homes were much more likely to have high lead levels across soils, chickens and their eggs. This finding matches other studies that found older homes are most at risk of legacy contamination from the former use of lead-based paints, leaded petrol and lead pipes.</p>
<h2>What can backyard producers do about it?</h2>
<p>These findings will come as a shock to many people who have turned to backyard food production. It has been on the rise over the past decade, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-21/green-finger-boom-sprouts-from-rising-cost-of-living/101250928">spurred on recently</a> by soaring grocery prices.</p>
<p>People are <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/PB-59-Grow-Your-Own.pdf">turning to home-grown produce</a> for other reasons, too. They want to know where their food came from, enjoy the security of producing food with no added chemicals, and feel the closer connection to nature.</p>
<p>While urban gardening is a hugely important activity and should be encouraged, previous studies of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412021002075">contamination of Australian home garden soils</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352340921004352">trace metal uptake into plants</a> show it needs to be undertaken with caution. </p>
<p>Contaminants have built up in soils over the many years of our cities’ history. These legacy contaminants can enter our food chain via <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-006-2027-1">vegetables</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b04084">honey bees</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.128">chickens</a>.</p>
<p>Urban gardening exposure risks have typically focused on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.10.054">vegetables and fruits</a>. Limited attention has been paid to backyard chickens. The challenge of sampling and finding participants meant many previous studies have been smaller and have not always analysed all possible exposure routes. </p>
<p>Mapping the risks of contamination in soils enables backyard gardeners and chicken keepers to consider what the findings may mean for them.</p>
<p>Particularly in older, inner-city locations, it would be prudent to get their soils tested. People can do this at <a href="https://www.360dustanalysis.com/">VegeSafe</a> or through a commercial laboratory. Soils identified as a problem can be replaced and chickens kept to areas of known clean soil.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The authors acknowledge Tahereh Yazdanparast as first author of the research paper.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187442/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Patrick Taylor received funding via an Australian Government Citizen Science Grant (2017-2020), CSG55984 ‘Citizen insights to the composition and risks of household dust’ (the DustSafe project). The VegeSafe and DustSafe programs are supported by publication donations to Macquarie University. He is a full-time employee of EPA Victoria, appointed to the statutory role of Chief Environmental Scientist.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dorrit E. Jacob and Vladimir Strezov do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lead levels in backyard hen eggs are often much higher than in eggs bought in the shops. A new study of soil lead, chickens and eggs locates the high-risk areas in our biggest cities.Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, Macquarie UniversityDorrit E. Jacob, Professor, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National UniversityVladimir Strezov, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1858282022-07-18T12:27:00Z2022-07-18T12:27:00ZWhen did the first fish live on Earth – and how do scientists figure out the timing?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471719/original/file-20220629-26-9ob4iv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1280%2C1021&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reconstruction of _Haikouichthys ercaicunensis_ based on fossil evidence.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haikouichthys_3d.png">Talifero/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>How do you figure out how long ago fish were created? Hundreds of millions of years is a long time ago. – Josh, age 11, Ephrata, Pennsylvania</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/46965">oldest fossils of animals resembling a fish</a> date back between 518 million and 530 million years ago. Discovered in China and called <em>Haikouichthys</em>, these animals were about an inch long (2.5 cm) and had a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01264">head with seven to eight slits at its base that looked like gills</a>. They also had a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01264">distinct spine surrounded by muscles</a>. </p>
<p>But there are ways <em>Haikouichthys</em> did not resemble any modern fish. For example, <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/fossils-give-glimpse-old-mother-lamprey">they didn’t have a jaw</a>. Instead, their mouth was a cone-like opening similar to the ones seen in <a href="https://nhpbs.org/wild/Agnatha.asp">modern hagfish and lampreys</a>. They also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01264">appear not to have had side fins</a>.</p>
<p>Even though <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=w4GYLBMAAAAJ">scientists like me</a> weren’t around to see for ourselves what was happening on Earth so long ago, we use geologic clues to figure out what animals lived when. Here’s how we sort out very ancient timelines and even put dates on fossils like <em>Haikouichthys</em>.</p>
<h2>Measuring in the millions</h2>
<p>To figure out how long ago fish first appeared on Earth you need a way to measure really, really long time intervals. Clocks measure short intervals, like seconds, minutes and hours. Calendars measure longer intervals, like days, months and years. What can you use to measure millions of years?</p>
<p><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/earth-sciences/what-is-radiometric-dating/">Radiometric dating</a> is the method that scientists use to calculate the passage of time in millions of years. To determine the age of rocks and fossils, scientists measure the type of atoms they are made of. </p>
<p>You might know that atoms are the building blocks of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-molecules-look-like-184892">molecules, which make up everything around you</a> – grass, cement, even air. While most atoms are very stable, <a href="https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/radioactivity/399579">some, called radioactive atoms, are unstable</a>. Over long periods of time, they spontaneously break down into more stable atoms. </p>
<p>Uranium is one of these radioactive atoms. <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Uranium">It breaks down very slowly into lead</a>. Both uranium and lead atoms can be found <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Pitchblende">naturally in rocks and minerals</a> in very, very low amounts. </p>
<p>Nuclear physicists have calculated that it would take <a href="https://www.livescience.com/39773-facts-about-uranium.html">700 million years for one pound of uranium</a> to break down into half a pound of lead. This rate of decay occurs at such a predictable rate that scientists can use it to calculate fairly accurately how old rocks and fossils are.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471720/original/file-20220629-22-xaw89m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and white photo of man in old style dress sitting in front of an elaborate contraption." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471720/original/file-20220629-22-xaw89m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471720/original/file-20220629-22-xaw89m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471720/original/file-20220629-22-xaw89m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471720/original/file-20220629-22-xaw89m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471720/original/file-20220629-22-xaw89m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471720/original/file-20220629-22-xaw89m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471720/original/file-20220629-22-xaw89m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ernest Rutherford at McGill University, 1905.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ernest_Rutherford_1905.jpg">Unknown, published in 1939 in 'Rutherford: being the life and letters of the Rt. Hon. Lord Rutherford'/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The idea for radiometric dating first occurred to <a href="https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/radioactivit00ruth">a New Zealand scientist named Ernest Rutherford</a> in 1904. His idea was to measure the number of uranium atoms and lead atoms in a rock and compare them. He predicted that an older rock would have more lead and less uranium than a younger rock would.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471722/original/file-20220629-22-7oc2sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph illustrating how proportion of unstable atoms in a substance decreases while the proportion of stable atoms increases over time." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471722/original/file-20220629-22-7oc2sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471722/original/file-20220629-22-7oc2sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471722/original/file-20220629-22-7oc2sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471722/original/file-20220629-22-7oc2sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471722/original/file-20220629-22-7oc2sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471722/original/file-20220629-22-7oc2sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471722/original/file-20220629-22-7oc2sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unstable atoms turn into stable atoms over time at a steady and predictable pace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/learning/player/lesson15/l15_la1.html">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/do07ra.html">American scientist Bertram Boltwood</a> put Rutherford’s idea to the test, <a href="https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/bertram-boltwood">measuring the amount of uranium and lead in different rocks</a> collected from all over the world. </p>
<p>Once a rock is formed, no new elements are added to it. So scientists can calculate how much uranium the rock started with by adding what’s left to the amount of lead that’s there now, thanks to the radioactive decay process. Then, because they know exactly how long it takes for uranium to break down into lead, they can figure out the age of the rock. Boltwood proved that Rutherford’s idea worked, establishing the field of radiometric dating in 1907.</p>
<h2>The making of the <em>Haikouichthys</em> fossil</h2>
<p><a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/fossil">Fossils are rocks</a>. So scientists can use radiometric dating to estimate how long ago the organisms that left the fossil imprint lived on Earth. </p>
<p>Animals leave fossil imprints only under special circumstances. In order for the <em>Haikouichthys</em> to leave fossils, their dead bodies would have had to sink to the bottom of the water and be covered with sediments before microorganisms could decompose them. Then, minerals in the sediments would have seeped into the <em>Haikouichthys</em> for their remains to become fossilized. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472572/original/file-20220705-4393-thhnx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A close-up photograph of a Haikouichthys fossil with 'eye' and 'V shaped myomere' labeled." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472572/original/file-20220705-4393-thhnx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472572/original/file-20220705-4393-thhnx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472572/original/file-20220705-4393-thhnx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472572/original/file-20220705-4393-thhnx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472572/original/file-20220705-4393-thhnx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472572/original/file-20220705-4393-thhnx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472572/original/file-20220705-4393-thhnx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A nearly complete specimen of <em>Haikouichthys</em> with the eye and zigzag-shaped muscle fibers called myomeres visible. This is one of many <em>Haikouichthys</em> fossils discovered in China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dr. and Prof. Degan Shu, Shannxi Key Laborotory of Early Life and Envionment Department of Geology, Northwest University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Radiometric dating of <em>Haikouichthys</em> fossils suggests these animals were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/46965">swimming in Earth’s waters between 518 million and 530 million years ago</a> – and possibly longer. </p>
<h2>Earth’s age as a 24-hour day</h2>
<p>Scientists, using radiometric dating, <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/how-did-scientists-calculate-age-earth">estimate the Earth itself is 4.5 billion years old</a>. For a long time on Earth, there was no life at all. Then microorganisms like bacteria showed up. It’s only relatively recently that plants and animals began living on Earth.</p>
<p>In fact, if you think of Earth’s age until now as a 24-hour day, it turns out <em>Haikouichthys</em> lived 2 hours and 45 minutes before the end of the day. <a href="https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/hominid-and-hominin-whats-the-difference/">Humanlike animals</a> appeared even more recently on Earth – about <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-human-familys-earliest-ancestors-7372974/">5 million to 7 million years ago </a> – only a few minutes before the end of the hypothetical day. </p>
<p>Whether the <em>Haikouichthys</em> was the first fish or not remains controversial. There are very few other fishlike fossils from the same time period. But paleontologists keep digging. Who knows, maybe in a few years they will discover an even older fishlike animal that will dethrone <em>Haikouichthys</em> as the oldest fishlike creature.</p>
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<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Isaac Skromne receives funding from National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health. </span></em></p>A biologist explains how researchers nail down the age of ancient fossils thanks to a physical process called radioactive decay.Isaac Skromne, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1808182022-04-07T10:19:16Z2022-04-07T10:19:16ZCould lead makeup really kill you? A scientist recreated centuries-old skin whitening recipes to find out – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456687/original/file-20220406-7054-wa4h2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C440%2C357&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Countess of Coventry, Maria Gunning, was rumoured to have died of lead poisoning from her makeup. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Coventry,_Countess_of_Coventry#/media/File:Mary_Gunning,_Countess_of_Coventry.jpg">Jean-Étienne Liotard via Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Can makeup really kill you? That’s the myth attached to Maria Gunning, the Countess of Coventry, an 18th-century socialite who <a href="https://historyofyesterday.com/deadly-fashion-trends-from-the-georgian-era-58d120dad1c6">reportedly died</a> from her lead-based makeup in 1760, aged just 27. </p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we speak to a scientist who has recreated some centuries-old recipes for white lead makeup to test how dangerous these cosmetics were. </p>
<iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/624e98976b1d87001240d267" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="190px"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Lead poisoning can cause all types of health problems, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.10096">high blood pressure</a>. It is a particular health hazard for women. It can cause <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.7386">early menopause</a> and increase the risk of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/lead/health.html">stillbirth and miscarriage</a>. </p>
<p>And yet, lead used to be a common ingredient in skin-whitening makeup. The ancient <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna22546056#.WGrA8bF-IdU">Greeks and Romans put it in their cosmetics</a> and white lead makeup, also known as ceruse, was fashionable between the 16th and 19th centuries in Europe.</p>
<p>Fiona McNeill is an expert in lead poisoning at McMaster University in Canada. But when she heard the story of the Countess of Coventry dying from her makeup, McNeill was sceptical. </p>
<p>“I’ve got this background in lead poisoning and I thought, this just can’t be true,” she tells us. While ingesting lead is toxic, McNeill was unconvinced that the lead in makeup would cross the skin in sufficient quantities to kill somebody. </p>
<p>McNeill and her colleagues decided to investigate. They found various centuries-old recipes for white lead makeup, recreated them in the lab, and then tested them on pig skin to find out. </p>
<p>And along the way, they’ve found what the makeup really looked like. “It’s always depicted in the movies and on TV as this white mask, this ridiculous-looking face. When we started making it in the lab, it doesn’t look like that at all,” she explains. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dying-for-makeup-lead-cosmetics-poisoned-18th-century-european-socialites-in-search-of-whiter-skin-176237">Dying for makeup: Lead cosmetics poisoned 18th-century European socialites in search of whiter skin</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/?hl=en">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter?utm_campaign=PodcastTCWeekly&utm_content=newsletter&utm_source=podcast">free daily email here</a>.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona E. McNeill receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span> </span></em></p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Daniel Merino, Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationGemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1733952021-12-08T23:51:24Z2021-12-08T23:51:24ZA century of tragedy: How the car and gas industry knew about the health risks of leaded fuel but sold it for 100 years anyway<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436454/original/file-20211208-104971-1bl6u5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5227%2C3413&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For decades, most gas sold in the U.S. contained a lead additive.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/rusty-petrol-pumps-on-a-gas-station-royalty-free-image/74166712?adppopup=true"> Per Magnus Persson via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the frosty morning of Dec. 9, 1921, in Dayton, Ohio, researchers at a General Motors lab poured a new fuel blend into one of their test engines. Immediately, the engine began running more quietly and putting out more power. </p>
<p>The new fuel was tetraethyl lead. With vast profits in sight – and very few public health regulations at the time – General Motors Co. rushed gasoline diluted with tetraethyl lead to market despite the known health risks of lead. They named it “Ethyl” gas.</p>
<p>It has been 100 years since that pivotal day in the development of leaded gasoline. As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=search_authors&mauthors=bill+kovarik&hl=en&oi=ao">historian of media and the environment</a>, I see this anniversary as a time to reflect on the role of public health advocates and environmental journalists in preventing profit-driven tragedy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436459/original/file-20211208-17-xev9b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a man in an old laboratory." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436459/original/file-20211208-17-xev9b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436459/original/file-20211208-17-xev9b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436459/original/file-20211208-17-xev9b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436459/original/file-20211208-17-xev9b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436459/original/file-20211208-17-xev9b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436459/original/file-20211208-17-xev9b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436459/original/file-20211208-17-xev9b9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists working for General Motors discovered that tetraethyl lead could greatly improve the efficiency and longevity of engines in the 1920s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of General Motors Institute</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lead and death</h2>
<p>By the early 1920s, <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/get_the_lead_out/pdfs/health/Needleman_1999.pdf">the hazards of lead were well known</a> – even Charles Dickens and Benjamin Franklin had written about the dangers of lead poisoning.</p>
<p>When GM began selling leaded gasoline, public health experts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/om030621b">questioned its decision</a>. One called lead a serious menace to public health, and another called concentrated tetraethyl lead a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/om030245v">malicious and creeping</a>” poison. </p>
<p>General Motors and Standard Oil waved the warnings aside until disaster struck in October 1924. Two dozen workers at a refinery in Bayway, New Jersey, came down with severe lead poisoning from a poorly designed GM process. At first they became disoriented, then burst into insane fury and collapsed into hysterical laughter. Many had to be wrestled into straitjackets. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1924/10/27/archives/odd-gas-kills-one-makes-four-insane-stricken-at-work-in-standards.html">Six died, and the rest were hospitalized</a>. Around the same time, 11 more workers died and several dozen more were disabled at similar GM and DuPont plants across the U.S.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436460/original/file-20211208-149721-820cnb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cartoon showing a man going insane after lead exposure." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436460/original/file-20211208-149721-820cnb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436460/original/file-20211208-149721-820cnb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=183&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436460/original/file-20211208-149721-820cnb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=183&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436460/original/file-20211208-149721-820cnb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=183&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436460/original/file-20211208-149721-820cnb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436460/original/file-20211208-149721-820cnb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436460/original/file-20211208-149721-820cnb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The news media began to criticize Standard Oil and raise concerns over Ethyl gas with articles and cartoons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">New York Evening Journal via The Library of Congress</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fighting the media</h2>
<p>The auto and gas industries’ attitude toward the media was hostile from the beginning. At Standard Oil’s first press conference about the 1924 Ethyl disaster, a spokesman claimed he had no idea what had happened while advising the media that “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1924/10/27/archives/odd-gas-kills-one-makes-four-insane-stricken-at-work-in-standards.html">Nothing ought to be said about this matter in the public interest</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://billkovarik.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Ethyl.Controversy.Kovarik.dissertation.pdf">More facts emerged in the months after the event</a>, and by the spring of 1925, in-depth newspaper coverage started to appear, framing the issue as public health versus industrial progress. A New York World article asked Yale University gas warfare expert Yandell Henderson and GM’s tetraethyl lead researcher Thomas Midgley whether leaded gasoline would poison people. Midgley joked about public health concerns and falsely insisted that leaded gasoline was the only way to raise fuel power. To demonstrate the negative impacts of leaded fuel, Henderson estimated that 30 tons of lead would fall in a dusty rain on New York’s Fifth Avenue every year. </p>
<p>Industry officials were outraged over the coverage. A GM public relations history from 1948 called the New York World’s coverage “a campaign of publicity against the public sale of gasoline containing the company’s antiknock compound.” GM also claimed that the media labeled leaded gas “loony gas” when, in fact, it was <a href="https://billkovarik.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Ethyl.Controversy.Kovarik.dissertation.pdf">the workers themselves who named it as such</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436735/original/file-20211209-141178-1klcf7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old advertisement for Ethyl brand gas." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436735/original/file-20211209-141178-1klcf7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436735/original/file-20211209-141178-1klcf7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436735/original/file-20211209-141178-1klcf7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436735/original/file-20211209-141178-1klcf7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436735/original/file-20211209-141178-1klcf7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436735/original/file-20211209-141178-1klcf7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436735/original/file-20211209-141178-1klcf7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leaded gas was marketed as Ethyl, a joint brand of Standard Oil and General Motors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.05719">John Margolies/Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Attempts at regulation</h2>
<p>In May 1925, the U.S. Public Health Service asked GM, Standard Oil and public health scientists to attend an open hearing on leaded gasoline in Washington. The issue, according to GM and Standard, involved refinery safety, not public health. Frank Howard of Standard Oil argued that tetraethyl lead was diluted at over 1,000 to 1 in gasoline and therefore posed no risk to the average person. </p>
<p>Public health scientists <a href="https://billkovarik.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Ethyl.Controversy.Kovarik.dissertation.pdf">challenged the need for leaded gasoline</a>. Alice Hamilton, a physician at Harvard, said, “There are thousands of things better than lead to put in gasoline.” And she was right. There were plenty of well-known alternatives at the time, and some were even patented by GM. But no one in the press knew how to find that information, and the Public Health Service, under pressure from the auto and oil industries, canceled a second day of public hearings that would have discussed safer gasoline additives like ethanol, iron carbonyl and catalytic reforming. </p>
<p>By 1926, the Public Health Service announced that they had “no good reason” to prohibit leaded gasoline, even though <a href="https://billkovarik.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Ethyl.Controversy.Kovarik.dissertation.pdf">internal memos complained that their research</a> was “half baked.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436456/original/file-20211208-68670-1nmlwhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing that blood lead levels closely follow lead emissions from cars." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436456/original/file-20211208-68670-1nmlwhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436456/original/file-20211208-68670-1nmlwhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436456/original/file-20211208-68670-1nmlwhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436456/original/file-20211208-68670-1nmlwhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436456/original/file-20211208-68670-1nmlwhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436456/original/file-20211208-68670-1nmlwhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436456/original/file-20211208-68670-1nmlwhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As leaded gasoline fell out of use, lead levels in people’s blood fell as well.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.epa.gov/lead">U.S. EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The rise and fall of leaded gasoline</h2>
<p>Leaded gasoline went on to dominate fuel markets worldwide. Researchers have estimated that decades of burning leaded gasoline caused <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/10/393292-phase-out-leaded-petrol-brings-huge-health-and-cost-benefits-un-backed-study">millions of premature deaths, enormous declines in IQ levels</a> and many other associated social problems.</p>
<p>In the 1960s and 1970s, the public health case against leaded gasoline reemerged. A California Institute of Technology geochemist, Clair Cameron Patterson, was finding it difficult to measure lead isotopes in his laboratory because lead from gasoline was everywhere and his samples were constantly being contaminated. Patterson created the first “clean room” to carry on his isotope work, but he also published a 1965 paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00039896.1965.10664229">Contaminated and Natural Lead Environments of Man</a>,” and said that “the average resident of the U.S. is being subjected to severe chronic lead insult.”</p>
<p>In parallel, by the 1970s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decided that leaded gasoline had to be phased out eventually because it clogged catalytic converters on cars and led to more air pollution. Leaded gasoline manufacturers objected, but the objections were <a href="https://casetext.com/case/ethyl-corp-v-epa">overruled by an appeals court</a>. </p>
<p>The public health concerns continued to build in the 1970s and 1980s when University of Pittsburgh pediatrician Herbert Needleman ran studies linking high levels of lead in children with low IQ and other developmental problems. Both Patterson and Needleman faced strong partisan attacks from the lead industry, which <a href="http://www.beacon.org/Toxic-Truth-P662.aspx">claimed that their research was fraudulent</a>. </p>
<p>Both were eventually vindicated when, in 1996, the U.S. officially banned the sale of leaded gasoline for public health reasons. Europe was next in the 2000s, followed by developing nations after that. In August 2021, the last country in the world to sell leaded gas, Algeria, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/finally-the-end-of-leaded-gas">banned it</a>.</p>
<p>A century of leaded gasoline has taken millions of lives and to this day leaves the soil in many cities from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906092116">New Orleans</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2102791118">London</a> toxic.</p>
<p>The leaded gasoline story provides a practical example of how industry’s profit-driven decisions – when unsuccessfully challenged and regulated – can cause serious and long-term harm. It takes individual public health leaders and strong media coverage of health and environmental issues to counter these risks. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173395/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Kovarik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Burning leaded gasoline releases toxic lead into the environment, and for 100 years people around the world have been dealing with the health effects. How did a century of toxic fuel come to be?Bill Kovarik, Professor of Communication, Radford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1658662021-11-12T13:36:08Z2021-11-12T13:36:08ZNeurotoxins in the environment are damaging human brain health – and more frequent fires and floods may make the problem worse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428985/original/file-20211028-23-ey0fbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=242%2C177%2C3352%2C2204&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wildfire smoke contains a mixture of toxic pollutants that can be harmful to both the lungs and the brain. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/california-wildfires-royalty-free-image/1281624333?adppopup=true">Bloomberg Creative/ Bloomberg Creative Photos via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the summer of 2021, a toxic, smoky haze stemming from <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/western-wildfires">Western wildfires</a> wafted across large parts of the United States, while hurricanes wrought extensive flooding in the southern and eastern U.S. Air quality websites such as <a href="https://www.airnow.gov">AirNow</a> warned of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/21/1018865569/the-western-wildfires-are-affecting-people-3-000-miles-away">hazardous conditions</a> on the U.S. East Coast from Western forest fires 3,000 miles away, with recommendations to stay indoors. </p>
<p>Journalists reported the immediate impact of lives lost and homes and property destroyed, but more insidious dangers escaped notice. Few people realize that these <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/11/1035241392/climate-change-disasters-mental-health-anxiety-eco-grief">climate change-fueled</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/cop26-extreme-weather-climate-change-action/">disasters</a> – both fires and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10807030903051309">floods</a> – could <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2017.1401017">adversely affect human health</a> in longer-term ways. </p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_ylo=2017&q=Arnold+Eiser&hl=en&as_sdt=0,39">scientist-author</a> who studies the links between environmental factors and the development of neurological disorders, which is the <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538158074/Preserving-Brain-Health-in-a-Toxic-Age-New-Insights-from-Neuroscience-Integrative-Medicine-and-Public-Health">subject of my recent book</a>. My <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2017.06.032">research on this topic</a> adds to a growing body of evidence that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/climate/flooding-chemicals-health-research.html">more frequent environmental disasters</a> may be raising <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4913-9">human exposure to neurotoxins</a>.</p>
<h2>Neurotoxic smoke</h2>
<p>Many scientists have identified links between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bj.2018.06.001">air pollution</a> in various forms, including from <a href="https://theconversation.com/breathing-wildfire-smoke-can-affect-the-brain-and-sperm-as-well-as-the-lungs-166548">forest fire smoke</a>, and an increased risk and prevalence of adverse health effects, including brain disorders. </p>
<p>Wildfire smoke is a mixture of <a href="https://health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/air/smoke_from_fire">countless noxious chemical compounds</a>. Fires burning <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/09/fires-rage-around-the-world-where-are-the-worst-blazes%20and%20Australia">across the warming planet</a> – from California to Greece and Australia – are adding dangerous particulate matter to the atmosphere that includes <a href="https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97204">neurotoxic heavy metals</a> such as mercury, lead, cadmium and manganese nanoparticles. <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-in-wildfire-smoke-a-toxicologist-explains-the-health-risks-and-which-masks-can-help-164597">These toxins</a> are an added environmental burden on top of the pollutants emitted by factories, power plants, trucks, automobiles and other sources. </p>
<p>The greatest potential for health problems comes from minuscule particles, smaller than 2.5 microns – or PM 2.5 (for context, the width of a human hair is typically 50 to 70 microns). This is, in part, because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201903-0635LE">tiny particles are easily inhaled</a>; from the lungs, they enter the bloodstream and circulate widely throughout the body. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00155">In the brain</a> they may inflame the microglial cells, the brain’s defensive cells, causing harm to neurons instead of protecting them. Studies show that these extremely tiny particles may damage neurons or brain cells by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2009.05.009">promoting inflammation</a>. Brain inflammation can lead to conditions <a href="https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180631">like dementia</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000000451">Parkinson’s disease</a>, a movement disorder in adults.</p>
<p>In addition, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.3101">prenatal</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001109">early-life exposure</a> to air pollution has been linked to an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder in children. Research suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.7508">air pollution exposure</a> during these critical periods, particularly in the third trimester of pregnancy and the first few months of life, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/tnsci-2016-0005">may impair normal neural development</a>. </p>
<h2>Waterborne neurotoxins</h2>
<p>As part of my book research, I investigated potential links between environmental neurotoxins and related health effects in Finland. Seeking unique environmental factors that might underlie the disproportionately high rates of fatal dementia that occurred in Finland in the past decade, I found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2017.06.032">water pollution</a> – exacerbated by flooding, use of fertilizer and higher water temperatures – may be affecting brain health. </p>
<p>As I reviewed the environmental concerns in Finland, the widespread presence of <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/kswsc/science/cyanobacterial-blue-green-algal-blooms-tastes-odors-and-toxins-0?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects">blue-green algae in waterways</a> stood out to me. Though it’s commonly called algae, blue-green algae is actually a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria. These toxic microorganisms thrive and proliferate in warm waterways when excessive nutrients, particularly phosphorus from fertilizer runoff, pour into fresh and brackish water. It produces <a href="https://www.epa.gov/cyanohabs/health-effects-cyanotoxins">cyanotoxins</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428983/original/file-20211028-23-lejb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Blue-green algae bloom on surface of lake with trees in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428983/original/file-20211028-23-lejb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428983/original/file-20211028-23-lejb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428983/original/file-20211028-23-lejb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428983/original/file-20211028-23-lejb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428983/original/file-20211028-23-lejb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428983/original/file-20211028-23-lejb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428983/original/file-20211028-23-lejb0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harmful blooms of blue-green algae on lakes and ponds can be toxic to humans and dogs alike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sefton-park-lake-in-liverpool-which-has-been-closed-off-news-photo/1228294229?adppopup=true">Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of these cyanotoxins, β-methylamino-L-alanine, or BMAA, is linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2020.00026">neurodegenerative disorders</a> including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
In particular I was struck by scientists’ finding high levels of BMAA in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0914417107">mollusks and fish found in the Baltic Sea</a>, which could potentially play a role in Finland’s high incidence of dementia, as fish is heavily consumed there.</p>
<p>Blue-green algae is found in <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/habs/index.html">rivers, lakes and seas</a>. Its presence is a widespread problem for humans, dogs and wildlife in the U.S. and Canada, as well as around the globe. In 2020, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54234396">more than 300 elephants in Botswana died</a> after drinking from water sources contaminated by the cyanobacteria that cause these algal blooms. Blue-green algae is so widely present in Finland that scientists there have developed <a href="https://www.utu.fi/en/news/news/novel-testing-device-will-reveal-whether-water-contains-toxic-blue-green-algae">a quick test to determine whether it is present or not.</a></p>
<h2>Mold neurotoxins</h2>
<p>In Finland, warm, humid air creates the perfect conditions for mold to grow, and water-damaged buildings are particularly susceptible. Some species emit mycotoxins, or mold toxins. Long-term exposure to mycotoxins, even at low levels, can present <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00039896.2003.11879142">serious health hazards</a> for both people and animals. </p>
<p>Mold spores are tiny, making them easy to inhale or ingest. Inside the body they can trigger an immune response, leading to chronic inflammation. Ultimately, exposure to these spores may cause <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2020.01.003">cognitive impairment</a>, including memory loss, irritability, numbness, tremors and other symptoms. Such a situation is likely to develop after a region has experienced the flooding of residences or workplaces in the weeks after they have been damaged.</p>
<p>Mold toxins, particularly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.200600137">ochratoxin A</a>, can trigger inflammation that may harm neurons and brain function. It has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2006.06.006">specifically implicated</a> in Parkinson’s disease. </p>
<h2>Reducing risk and a way forward</h2>
<p>Education, greater awareness of environmental health concerns and public action are the best ways to minimize risks from environmental neurotoxins.</p>
<p>By learning to recognize blue-green algae, people may avoid swimming or boating near it and avoid letting their pets near it too. Consumers can advocate for greater environmental monitoring of food and water sources. Exercise that involves sweating can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/3676089">help eliminate neurotoxic substances</a>. But before you exercise outdoors, it is prudent to check air quality on an app or website like <a href="https://www.airnow.gov/">AirNow</a>, a partnership of federal, state, local and tribal agencies.</p>
<p>If environmental policies aren’t put into place to mitigate the health risks posed by environmental neurotoxins, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4172/2161-0460.1000249">research suggests</a> that we may continue to experience increases in a variety of neurodegenerative disorders as the toxins rise. Many of these conditions are labeled idiopathic, or lacking a known cause. The neurotoxic connection is rarely considered, and environmental health hazards are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02458-x">often overlooked in American health care</a>. This is in large part because environmental health is rarely taught in medical education, which can lead to a lack of awareness about potential diagnoses related to an environmental illness.</p>
<p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently <a href="https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-10/draft-policy-assessment-for-the-reconsideration-of-the-pm-naaqs_october-2021_0.pdf">reevaluating</a> air quality standards for particulate matter. A new EPA <a href="https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-09/_epaoig_20210929-21-e-0264.pdf">inspector general report</a> calls for a strategic plan to control harmful algal blooms. Ohio, a leading state for public policy initiatives aimed at neurotoxic algal blooms, <a href="https://grist.org/politics/toxic-algae-blooms-are-multiplying-the-government-has-no-plan-to-help">now regulates</a> cyanotoxins in drinking water and advises farmers against adding fertilizer when the ground is saturated or when rain is in the forecast. </p>
<p>Since <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1468-9">climate change may be a driver for rising neurotoxins</a>, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring better environmental stewardship are essential to human health. Achieving this will require strong international and domestic efforts and a wide range of interventions by governments around the world. But all of these efforts must begin with a deeper and more widespread understanding of the profound nature of this problem – which should be a universal, nonpartisan concern. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 115,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165866/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arnold R. Eiser does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pollution from more frequent floods and wildfires – exacerbated by the warming climate – is threatening human health and poses particular risks to the brain.Arnold R. Eiser, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Drexel UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1709292021-11-05T12:28:50Z2021-11-05T12:28:50ZA new, lower threshold for lead poisoning in children means more kids will get tested – but the ultimate solution is eliminating lead sources<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430091/original/file-20211103-23-1r7sfwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C0%2C4639%2C3069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Testing kids for lead exposure starts with a fingertip prick. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/brian-jones-a-first-responder-for-livingston-county-news-photo/506974822">Brett Carlsen/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7043a4.htm?s_cid=mm7043a4_w">updated its blood lead reference value</a> – the level at which children ages 1-5 are considered to have high exposure to lead. Since 2012, this threshold had been set at 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood; children at or above this level represented the top 2.5% with the highest blood lead levels in the nation. Now, in response to recent federal health surveys, the CDC has updated that number to 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. Environmental scientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MEp4948AAAAJ&hl=en">Gabriel Filippelli</a>, who has studied urban lead poisoning in children, explains what this shift means for public health.</em></p>
<h2>Will this change affect how doctors detect and treat childhood lead poisoning?</h2>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control periodically reviews national data on blood lead levels in children. This new lower value is the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/data/blood-lead-reference-value.htm">average blood lead level exceeded by 2.5% of children tested</a>. </p>
<p>Many clinics have an on-site screening device that uses electrochemical detection to quickly test a small amount of blood from a fingertip prick. If children test positive, doctors refer them to have a larger blood sample drawn from a vein and analyzed in a diagnostic laboratory. The clinical test is fast, cheap and relatively painless, but the venous blood draw is the gold standard for diagnosing lead poisoning. </p>
<p>On-site clinical devices typically can detect lead at concentrations as low as 3.2 micrograms per deciliter, so the new CDC guidance means that nearly all children who show positive results at the screening level will be referred for follow-up testing. That’s much more protective from a public health perspective. </p>
<p>However, it will <a href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/new-cdc-standard-may-double-the-number-of-children-with-lead-poisoning.html">roughly double</a> the number of children who are classified as at highest risk for lead poisoning. Formerly, children had to have at least 5 micrograms per deciliter of lead in their blood to fall into that group; now it will include thousands more children with slightly lower blood lead levels. </p>
<p>Larger numbers of children means that many states will have trouble affording testing and follow-up care – which can involve <a href="https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/lead-exposure/treatment-of-lead-poisoning/">dietary changes and medications</a>, as well as removing lead exposure sources – unless Congress increases federal support for programs to prevent and treat lead poisoning.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1437437173691727877"}"></div></p>
<h2>How are children commonly exposed to lead?</h2>
<p>The most pervasive source, especially in cities, is soil and dust generated from soil. Thanks to many years of emissions from degraded lead-based paint, leaded gasoline and industrial sources, typical urban soils have lead concentrations that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2021.106582">range from benign to toxic</a>. Children are exposed when they touch or play in contaminated dirt or inhale the dust. </p>
<p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for lead in soils in public play areas is <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/safety_standards.html#:%7E:text=Soil%20contains%20lead%20concentrations%20less,play%20areas%20%5BEPA%202000a%5D.">400 parts per million</a>. That’s significantly higher than typical background levels, which are roughly 20 to 50 parts per million. This action level has remained in place for decades, even though studies indicate that it’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP10376">unacceptably high as a public health guideline</a>. </p>
<p>Some U.S. states, <a href="https://dtsc.ca.gov/faq/what-are-acceptable-concentrations-of-lead-in-soil-in-california/">such as California</a>, have much lower limits. In my experience, it’s not unusual to find urban soils with much higher levels, particularly near the exterior walls of buildings where lead may accumulate from degraded paints or <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15071531">dust buildup</a>. </p>
<p>The most lead-contaminated neighborhoods in cities are often the poorest and home to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073117-041222">highest percentage of nonwhite children</a>. This is a legacy of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america">racist housing practices</a> that concentrated people of color in less desirable neighborhoods. Residents in these zones can have significantly higher rates of elevated blood lead levels than people in wealthier neighborhoods.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430093/original/file-20211103-23-mwrpi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young girl in front of a public housing complex." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430093/original/file-20211103-23-mwrpi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430093/original/file-20211103-23-mwrpi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430093/original/file-20211103-23-mwrpi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430093/original/file-20211103-23-mwrpi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430093/original/file-20211103-23-mwrpi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430093/original/file-20211103-23-mwrpi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430093/original/file-20211103-23-mwrpi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kaelynn Lott, one of 120 children living at the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago, Indiana, who tested positive for lead poisoning. After soil at the complex was found to contain high levels of lead and arsenic in 2016, the city ordered over 1,000 residents to relocate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kaelynn-lott-a-resident-at-the-west-calumet-housing-complex-news-photo/599443064">Joshua Lott/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lead-based paint is also a major exposure risk, particularly in poorly maintained buildings. Lead paint tastes sweet, so children sometimes chew on paint chips or painted wood.</p>
<p>Lead water pipes are a third source, although less common than paint or soil. Many cities and towns across the U.S. have <a href="https://theconversation.com/bidens-infrastructure-plan-targets-lead-pipes-that-threaten-public-health-across-the-us-158277">lead service lines</a> that deliver water to homes. If their water is treated properly, a protective plaque forms on the inside of water pipes and seals their lead content away from the water. </p>
<p>But some cities, including <a href="https://wtop.com/dc/2016/04/flint-d-c-s-drinking-water-crisis-even-worse/">Washington, D.C.</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/11/nyregion/newark-lead-pipes-drinking-water.html">Newark</a>, New Jersey, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378/lead-laced-water-in-flint-a-step-by-step-look-at-the-makings-of-a-crisis">Flint, Michigan</a>, have changed their water sources or treatment processes in ways that stripped out the protective plaque and carried lead to household taps. These water crises disproportionately affected communities of color. </p>
<h2>How does lead exposure at these levels affect children’s health?</h2>
<p>Historically, public health interventions focused on acutely poisoned children who exhibited clear neurocognitive issues such as attention deficit, memory lapses, agitation and even tremors. As lead was slowly removed from most home uses in the mid-20th century and the U.S. population’s blood lead levels decreased, these obvious clinical presentations for lead poisoning declined.</p>
<p>What we see now are more subtle neurocognitive deficits, which scientists and medical experts measure through neurological and behavioral testing. A child who is diagnosed as having high blood lead levels today may perform poorly on standardized exams, behave disruptively in the classroom or at home or have trouble retaining information. Follow-up research in Flint shows that many infants and toddlers who were exposed to lead in water there in 2015 <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/flint-water-crisis-effect-on-children-60-minutes-2020-03-15/">are struggling now that they are in school</a>. </p>
<p>These types of tests show that blood lead levels even lower than the new standard <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ntt.2020.106888">still affect performance</a>. This research is the basis for statements from scholars and the CDC that <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/health-effects.htm">there is no safe blood lead level in children</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p7WTBVVXsrQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A study that tracked 579 children born in the 1970s in New Zealand for more than 30 years found modest but long-lasting mental health and personality effects from exposure to lead early in life.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s the trend for childhood lead poisoning in the US?</h2>
<p>It has been falling since most major environmental sources of lead, such as leaded gasoline, lead-based paints and industrial emissions, were eliminated starting in the 1970s. Recent analyses show that the median blood lead level for all U.S. children between ages 1 and 5 is about 0.7 micrograms per deciliter today, compared with <a href="https://www.epa.gov/americaschildrenenvironment/ace-biomonitoring-lead">15 micrograms per deciliter in the late 1970s</a>. </p>
<p>But Black children and children living in poverty have average blood lead levels that are <a href="https://www.epa.gov/americaschildrenenvironment/ace-biomonitoring-lead">13% higher than this national average</a>, which means that many of them are at risk. </p>
<p>For example, in a 2019 study, I worked with colleagues at Notre Dame to analyze blood lead levels of over 18,000 children in St. Joseph County, Indiana, which includes the town of South Bend. In some neighborhoods, over 30% of children had blood lead levels higher than 5 micrograms per deciliter, and over 65% of the census tracts had average blood lead levels <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-018-0155-7">over that safety limit</a>. </p>
<p>We also found that there was no systematic, risk-informed approach to testing. In areas that had the highest potential risks based on poverty levels, less than 6% of eligible children had lead test results reported to the county health department – the same rate as in other, wealthier census tracts. Without more screening, and more work to eliminate lead exposure in the communities most at risk, this problem won’t be solved for a long time.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to add a link to an article calling for lower limits on lead in soils in public play areas.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Filippelli receives funding from the Housing and Urban Development Agency. </span></em></p>The Centers for Disease Control has announced a new, stricter standard for lead poisoning in children, which will more than double the number of kids considered to have high blood lead levels.Gabriel Filippelli, Chancellor's Professor of Earth Sciences and Executive Director, Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1677342021-09-14T12:54:05Z2021-09-14T12:54:05ZWhat contaminants lurk in the UK’s drinking water? An expert explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421091/original/file-20210914-27-1ww0rt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1917%2C1279&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The lead pipes in some old buildings could contaminate drinking water.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/water-fountain-water-fountain-197334/">AnnaER/Pixabay</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently, a school project made an alarming discovery: the presence of five times the recommended maximum amount of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/05/science-project-reveals-high-lead-levels-in-schools-water">lead</a> in water samples taken from 14 schools across the UK. Lead is a toxin which even at <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40572-018-0193-0">low levels</a> is capable of affecting children’s brain development and reducing their IQ. The news might well make the British public worry about what exactly is lurking in their drinking water.</p>
<p>Installing lead pipes in the UK’s drinking-water network has been banned for decades, but about <a href="https://www.abcb.gov.au/sites/default/files/resources/2020//Lead_in_Plumbing_Products_and_Materials.pdf">eight million old buildings</a> may still have lead pipes in service. Usually, external lead pipes connect the building to the main water pipe, but in some cases, internal plumbing can also contain lead pipes. </p>
<p>Brass plumbing fittings, such as those used in water fountains, can contain <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101111141849.htm">low levels</a> of lead and can release that lead if water sits in them for a <a href="https://awwa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/j.1551-8833.2010.tb11340.x">long time</a> – or if chemicals like chloride make the water corrosive, meaning bits of pipe start leaking into the water. To help prevent this, water companies in the UK add corrosion inhibitors, such as <a href="https://ehsdailyadvisor.blr.com/2018/03/drinking-water-phosphate-corrosion-inhibitors/#:%7E:text=Phosphate%2Dbased%20corrosion%20inhibitors%20are,and%20not%20dissolve%20into%20water.">orthophosphate</a>, to drinking water. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, UK water companies are working to identify and remove lead pipes across the country – but this work is slow and expensive. Fundamentally, while lead pipes are in service, there remains a risk of contamination. </p>
<p>Building owners should <a href="https://www.watersafe.org.uk/news/latest_news/watersafe-urges-take-the-scratch-test/">take action</a> to protect vulnerable people, particularly children, by checking for the presence of lead pipes and testing their water. This can be done by private laboratories, but many water companies will also perform this test if asked to do so. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A row of old English houses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421093/original/file-20210914-13-hhfkdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421093/original/file-20210914-13-hhfkdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421093/original/file-20210914-13-hhfkdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421093/original/file-20210914-13-hhfkdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421093/original/file-20210914-13-hhfkdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421093/original/file-20210914-13-hhfkdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421093/original/file-20210914-13-hhfkdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some older houses may still be fitted with lead pipes, potentially contaminating drinking water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/village-houses-street-old-houses-3735180/">Bittermuir/Pixabay</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The US has announced a high-profile infrastructure renewal plan that commits to removing <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/28/politics/infrastructure-bill-explained/index.html">all lead pipes</a> as part of a £39.7 billion water system upgrade fund over the next five years: an example the UK government should consider following.</p>
<p>But lead is not the only contaminant that might be leaking into people’s homes. An increasingly polluted environment means that many contaminants make their way into rivers, lakes and, ultimately, drinking water.</p>
<h2>Emerging contaminants</h2>
<p>One example of contaminants that have emerged as a health concern in drinking water is a group of chemicals collectively referred to as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances <a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pfc/index.cfm">(PFAS)</a>. Historically used as nonstick coatings for items such as cooking pans and in fire-fighting foams, PFAS can now be found wherever <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/14/forever-chemicals-the-hidden-threat-from-the-pfas-toxins-on-your-shelf">humans live</a>. </p>
<p>PFAS are sometimes called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/14/forever-chemicals-the-hidden-threat-from-the-pfas-toxins-on-your-shelf">forever chemicals</a>” because they don’t naturally degrade in the environment, instead they accumulate in the bodies of organisms like fish. </p>
<p>There is considerable scientific debate around the world about how many <a href="https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/news/pfas-food-efsa-assesses-risks-and-sets-tolerable-intake">PFAS</a> can be present in drinking water and food before they pose a danger to <a href="https://cdn.dwi.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/12110137/PFOS-PFOA-guidance-2021.pdf">human health</a>.</p>
<p>In England, the <a href="https://www.dwi.gov.uk/">Drinking Water Inspectorate</a> has set guidance levels for two PFAS compounds: perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). If either compound is detected above <a href="https://cdn.dwi.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/12110137/PFOS-PFOA-guidance-2021.pdf">0.01 micrograms</a> per litre of water, water companies must perform a risk assessment, test all their drinking water supplies, and report their findings to local health authorities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Fisherman haul in a catch on a beach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421094/original/file-20210914-27-wttfu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421094/original/file-20210914-27-wttfu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421094/original/file-20210914-27-wttfu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421094/original/file-20210914-27-wttfu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421094/original/file-20210914-27-wttfu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421094/original/file-20210914-27-wttfu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421094/original/file-20210914-27-wttfu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">PFAS are now found across the world, from remote beaches to the slopes of Mount Everest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/fishermen-beach-boat-fishing-sea-2983615/">Quangpraha/Pixabay</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Keeping up with contaminants</h2>
<p>The water industry is continually trying to keep up with the latest potential contaminants – including microbiological contaminants including diarrhoea-causing parasites such as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/crypto/index.html#:%7E:text=Cryptosporidium%20is%20a%20microscopic%20parasite,of%20which%20also%20infect%20humans."><em>cryptosporidium</em></a>, and ever-increasing volumes of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/microplastics-in-virtually-every-crevice-on-earth">microplastics</a> – to understand where they come from, how to remove them, and what they do inside the human body.</p>
<p>It takes years to study a new contaminant: from determining how best to detect it, understanding how much of it is present in water compared with other sources such as food, and quantifying its effect on public health to justify spending money on regulation.</p>
<p>Drinking water treatment continues to improve, but many of the <a href="https://www.wqpmag.com/pfas/pfas-removal-technologies">newer technologies</a> needed to remove contaminants like PFAS require even more energy and chemicals than current methods use. From a sustainability perspective, the best course of action is to prevent these contaminants from entering drinking water sources in the first place. </p>
<p>In the UK, many contaminants are both legally and illegally <a href="https://www.endsreport.com/article/1712683/illegal-sewage-dumping-water-firms-widespread-frequent-investigation-reveals">dumped</a> in waterways in much higher concentrations than are allowed for drinking water. Regulations should be coordinated to make sure that unsafe levels of contaminants don’t get anywhere near the water systems. </p>
<p>Historically, the approach to pollution was to rely on dilution in rivers and lakes to reduce concentrations of potentially dangerous substances. Now, as we understand more about the potential environmental and human health effects of the <a href="https://chemtrust.org/pfas-food-packaging-uk/">toxins</a> around us, it’s time to introduce more stringent controls.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa Speight receives funding from UKRI and a number of UK water companies.</span></em></p>High levels of lead were unexpectedly found in 14 UK schools’ drinking water: so how much do we really know about what’s in our pipes?Vanessa Speight, Professor of Integrated Water Systems, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1665372021-09-10T12:28:29Z2021-09-10T12:28:29Z9/11 survivors’ exposure to toxic dust and the chronic health conditions that followed offer lessons that are still too often unheeded<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420128/original/file-20210908-22-728gm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C125%2C2775%2C1859&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Toxic dust hung in the air around ground zero for more than three months following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-unidentified-new-york-city-firefighter-walks-away-from-news-photo/1372804?adppopup=true">Anthony Correia/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York resulted in the loss of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/27/us/september-11-anniversary-fast-facts/index.html">2,753 people in the Twin Towers and surrounding area</a>. After the attack, more than 100,000 responders and recovery workers from every U.S. state – along with <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/wtc/history.html">some 400,000 residents</a> and other workers around ground zero – were exposed to a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/september-11-toxic-world-trade-center-dust-cloud/story?id=14466933">toxic cloud of dust</a> that fell as a ghostly, thick layer of ash and then hung in the air for more than three months. </p>
<p>The World Trade Center dust plume, or <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/10408444.2015.1044601">WTC dust</a>, consisted of a dangerous mixture of cement dust and particles, asbestos and a class of chemicals called <a href="https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/persistent-organic-pollutants-global-issue-global-response">persistent organic pollutants</a>. These include <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dioxin/learn-about-dioxin">cancer-causing dioxins</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/PAHs_FactSheet.html">polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs</a>, which are byproducts of fuel combustion. </p>
<p>The dust also contained heavy metals that are known <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health">to be poisonous to the human body and brain</a>, such as lead – used in the manufacturing of flexible electrical cables – and mercury, which is found in float valves, switches and fluorescent lamps. The dust also contained cadmium, a carcinogen <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-010-9328-y">toxic to the kidneys</a> that is used in the manufacturing of electric batteries and pigments for paints.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Smoke pours from the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420341/original/file-20210909-27-p4t2aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the haunting images from 9/11: Smoke pours from the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York after they were hit by two hijacked airliners.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/smoke-pours-from-the-twin-towers-of-the-world-trade-center-news-photo/1339505?adppopup=true">Robert Giroux via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/factsheets/polychlorinatedbiphenyls.htm#:%7E:text=Polychlorinated%20biphenyls%20(PCBs)%20are%20a,equipment%20like%20capacitors%20and%20transformers.">Polychlorinated biphenyls</a>, human-made chemicals used in electrical transformers, were also part of the toxic stew. PCBs are <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pcbs/learn-about-polychlorinated-biphenyls-pcbs#healtheffects">known to be carcinogenic</a>, toxic to the nervous system and disruptive to the reproductive system. But they became even more harmful when incinerated at high heat from the jets’ fuel combustion and then carried by very fine particles. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/10408444.2015.1044601">WTC dust</a> was made up of both “large” particulate matter and very small, fine and ultrafine ones. These particularly small particles are known to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35398-0">highly toxic</a>, especially to the nervous system since they can travel directly through the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2011.12.001">nasal cavity to the brain</a>. </p>
<p>Many first responders and others who were directly exposed to the dust developed a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/10408444.2015.1044601">severe and persistent cough</a> that lasted for a month, on average. They were treated at Mount Sinai Hospital and received care at the Clinic of Occupational Medicine, a well-known center for work-related diseases.</p>
<p>I am a physician specializing in occupational medicine who began working directly with 9/11 survivors in my role as director of the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/wtc/">WTC Health Program</a> <a href="https://icahn.mssm.edu/about/departments/environmental-public-health/research/wtc-data-center">Data Center</a> at Mount Sinai beginning in 2012. That program collects data, as well as monitors and oversees the public health of WTC rescue and recovery workers. After eight years in that role, I <a href="https://stempel.fiu.edu/faculty/roberto-lucchini/">moved to Florida International University</a> in Miami, where I am planning to continue working with 9/11 responders who are moving to Florida as they reach retirement age.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="In lower Manhattan near Ground Zero, people run away as the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420343/original/file-20210909-23-1bc9fnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remembering 9/11: As the north tower of the World Trade Center collapses, a cloud of toxic gas chases terrified residents and tourists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-run-away-as-the-north-tower-of-world-trade-center-news-photo/1339533?adppopup=true">Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From acute to chronic conditions</h2>
<p>After the initial “acute” health problems that 9/11 responders faced, they soon began experiencing a wave of chronic diseases that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126383">continue to affect them</a> 20 years later. The persistent cough gave way to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/dmp.2011.58">respiratory diseases</a> such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and upper airway diseases such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2015-103094">chronic rhinosinusitis</a>, laryngitis and nasopharyngitis. </p>
<p>The litany of respiratory diseases also put many of them at risk for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ajg.2011.357">gastroesophageal reflux disease</a> (GERD), which occurs at a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0b013e3181845f9b">higher rate in WTC survivors</a> than in the general population. This condition occurs when stomach acids reenter the esophagus, or food pipe, that connects the stomach to the throat. As a consequence of either the airway or the digestive disorders, many of these survivors also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0b013e3182305282">struggle with sleep apnea</a>, which requires additional treatments.</p>
<p>Further compounding the tragedy, about eight years after the attacks, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jncics/pkz090">cancers began to turn up</a> in 9/11 survivors. These include tumors of the blood and lymphoid tissues such as lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia, which are well known to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-6673-8-14">affect workers exposed to carcinogens</a> in the workplace. But survivors also suffer from other cancers, including breast, head and neck, prostate, lung and thyroid cancers. </p>
<p>Some have also developed mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer related to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2013-204161">exposure to asbestos</a>. <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/9stories/september-11-death-toll-from-terror-attack-could-rise-by-millions-due-to-toxic-asbestos-dust/8bc90677-0032-42a2-82f9-4b9baad753d9">Asbestos</a> was used in the early construction of the north tower until public advocacy and broader awareness of its health dangers <a href="https://www.mesothelioma.com/states/new-york/world-trade-center/">brought its use to a halt</a>.</p>
<p>And the psychological trauma that 9/11 survivors experienced has left many suffering from persistent mental health challenges. One <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-019-00998-z">study</a> published in 2020 found that of more than 16,000 WTC responders for whom data was collected, nearly half reported a need for mental health care, and 20% of those who were directly affected developed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dadm.2016.08.001">post-traumatic stress disorder</a>. </p>
<p>Many have told me that the contact they had with parts of human bodies or with the deadly scene and the tragic days afterward left a permanent mark on their lives. They are unable to forget the images, and many of them suffer from mood disorders as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-019-0449-7">cognitive impairments and other behavioral issues</a>, including substance use disorder. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="On 9/11, shortly after the terrorist attack in New York City, a distraught survivor sits outside the World Trade Center." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420347/original/file-20210909-23-do7s5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remembering 9/11: A distraught survivor sits outside the World Trade Center after the terrorist attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/survivor-sits-outside-the-world-trade-center-after-two-news-photo/50833029?adppopup=true">Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An aging generation of survivors</h2>
<p>Now, 20 years on, these survivors face a new challenge as they age and move toward retirement – a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w12123">difficult life transition</a> that can sometimes lead to mental health decline. Prior to retirement, the daily drumbeat of work activity and a steady schedule often helps keep the mind busy. But retirement can sometimes leave a void – one that for 9/11 survivors is too often filled with unwanted memories of the noises, smells, fear and despair of that terrible day and the days that followed. Many survivors have told me they do not want to return to Manhattan and certainly not to the WTC. </p>
<p>Aging can also bring with it forgetfulness and other cognitive challenges. But studies show that these natural processes are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-019-0449-7">accelerated and more severe</a> in 9/11 survivors, similar to the experience of veterans from war zones. This is a concerning trend, but all the more so because a growing body of research, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-846359/v1">our own preliminary study</a>, is finding links between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.105.014779">cognitive impairment in 9/11 responders and dementia</a>. A recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/08/30/911-first-responders-dementia/">Washington Post piece detailed</a> how 9/11 survivors are experiencing these dementia-like conditions in their 50s – far earlier than is typical. </p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic, too, has taken a toll on those who have already suffered from 9/11. People with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100515">preexisting conditions</a> have been at far higher risk during the pandemic. Not surprisingly, a recent study found a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254713">higher incidence of COVID-19</a> in WTC responders from January through August 2020.</p>
<h2>Honoring the 9/11 survivors</h2>
<p>The health risks posed by direct exposure to the acrid dust was underestimated at the time, and poorly understood. Appropriate personal protective equipment, such as P100 half-face respirators, was not available at that time. </p>
<p>But now, over 20 years on, we know much more about the risks – and we have much greater access to protective equipment that can keep responders and recovery workers safe following disasters. Yet, too often, I see that we have not learned and applied these lessons. </p>
<p>For instance, in the immediate aftermath of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/06/us/miami-building-collapse-updates">condominium collapse</a> near Miami Beach last June, it took days before P100 half-face respirators were fully available and made mandatory for the responders. Other examples around the world are even worse: One year after the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/04/1024275186/a-year-after-the-beirut-explosion-victims-families-continue-to-push-for-justice">Beirut explosion</a> in August 2020, very little action had been taken to investigate and manage the physical and <a href="https://timep.org/commentary/analysis/the-beirut-explosions-impact-on-mental-health/">mental health consequences </a> among responders and the impacted community.</p>
<p>Applying the lessons learned from 9/11 is a critically important way to honor the victims and the brave men and women who took part in the desperate rescue and recovery efforts back on those terrible days.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberto Lucchini receives funding from CDC/NIOSH to study the cognitive impacts associated to the WTC exposure to neurotoxins and to intense psychological trauma. </span></em></p>Those directly exposed to toxic dust and trauma on and after 9/11 carry with them a generation of chronic health conditions, which are placing them at higher risk during the pandemic and as they age.Roberto Lucchini, Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1672142021-09-03T13:25:09Z2021-09-03T13:25:09ZLeaded petrol is gone – but lead pollution may linger for a very long time<p>As a scientist studying lead poisoning in children <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393519793807X?via%3Dihub">once remarked</a>: “it took two years to put lead into gasoline and 60 years to take it out”. The consensus around leaded fuel’s unacceptable threat to human health was hard won, entailing a long fight between scientists, regulatory authorities and industry. In a recent ray of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/30/leaded-petrol-era-officially-over-as-algeria-ends-pump-sales">good news</a>, it seems the world has finally turned a corner on the use of this toxic chemical in fuel.</p>
<p>The use of lead in fuel goes back to the 1920s, when tetraethyl lead was added to petrol to reduce engine knocking. From 1970 until the end of the century, it’s estimated that about 140,000 tonnes of lead was released <a href="https://naei.beis.gov.uk/overview/pollutants?pollutant_id=17">into the atmosphere</a> from tailpipes in the UK. Since 1999, using lead in fuel has been banned. </p>
<p>Phasing out lead has proven more difficult in lower income countries, particularly Algeria – the final hold-out. But as of July 2021, the world has <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/08/1098792">officially eradicated</a> leaded fuel according to the UN, meaning it’s no longer sold for cars and lorries anywhere in the world.</p>
<p>Though petrol containing lead hasn’t been seen at station pumps in the UK this century, lead pollution is proving to be a persistent menace. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/26/e2102791118">A recent study</a> showed lead lingering in airborne dust collected in London between 2014 and 2018, nearly two decades after tailpipe emissions of the metal had ceased. </p>
<p>The lead content in that study was measured in particles collected either at the roadside or at rooftop height. The chemical fingerprint closely matched that of road dust and top soils, suggesting that contaminated soil is acting as a reservoir for 20-year old lead pollution, which is continually returned to the atmosphere when disturbed. The fact that lead found at street and building height shared the same chemical signature suggests airborne lead pollution is fairly well mixed across London.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A smokey car exhaust." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419263/original/file-20210903-23-8xy6sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419263/original/file-20210903-23-8xy6sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419263/original/file-20210903-23-8xy6sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419263/original/file-20210903-23-8xy6sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419263/original/file-20210903-23-8xy6sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419263/original/file-20210903-23-8xy6sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419263/original/file-20210903-23-8xy6sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lead from vehicle exhausts in the 20th century remain in soils today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/air-pollution-vehicle-exhaust-pipe-on-1256313274">Deliris/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the world may rejoice at the end of the leaded fuel era, how long can we expect to deal with its consequences?</p>
<h2>How lead pollution affects our health</h2>
<p>Lead does not biodegrade or disappear over time. It can remain in soils for thousands of years, where it can be blown back into the atmosphere.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that today’s airborne concentrations of less than 10 nanograms per cubic metre are tiny compared to the average of greater than 1,000 in the 1960s. But there is <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP7932">strong clinical evidence</a> that even low-level exposure to lead can affect the development of the brain and nervous system in children, resulting in impaired cognitive function, attention and behavioural problems. No safe level for lead in children has been identified, and the air is just one source – it can linger in old pipes, toys and paints.</p>
<p>As car travel took off in the early 20th century, the urge to sell the freedom and convenience of private transport to more and more people trumped public health concerns around leaded fuel, despite the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-58388810">high-profile deaths</a> of five US oil refinery workers in 1924. It has <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsta.2019.0326">also been suggested</a> that public health scientists were complicit in obscuring the risks. Later, industry-sponsored science muddied the waters even further. </p>
<p>Today, the successful eradication of leaded fuel can be seen as a policy triumph. Child health in particular is likely to be the biggest beneficiary. Further research in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1352231011012131?via%3Dihub">several US cities</a> has affirmed the links between residual lead pollution in soils and the presence of the toxic chemical in blood samples taken from children.</p>
<p>With urgent action needed now on climate change, another global crisis, the story of leaded fuel highlights an enduring conundrum. How much pollution is a price worth paying for progress?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Monks receives funding from Natural Environment Research Council. He also works in part as the Chief Scientific Advisor for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is writing in an academic capacity.</span></em></p>The world recently celebrated the end of leaded petrol, as sales ceased in Algeria.Paul Monks, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Earth Observation Science, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1646862021-07-29T12:23:40Z2021-07-29T12:23:40ZLead exposure during childhood may influence adult personality, and not for the better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413162/original/file-20210726-23-1t9x3iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4717%2C3036&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lead pollution may have wider ranging adverse effects on health than previously thought.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/double-exposure-portrait-of-face-of-young-man-royalty-free-image/1219500833">Busà Photography/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Children raised in areas with more atmospheric lead pollution grew up to have less <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020104118">adaptive and less mature personalities</a>, according to a study I led of over 1.5 million people across the U.S. and Europe. As adults, they were less conscientious, less agreeable and, in some cases, more neurotic.</p>
<p>Researchers have known for many years that childhood lead exposure has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.19998">harmful effects on brain development</a>. It causes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1996.03530290033034">mental health problems</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1682.1796">criminal behavior</a> that costs the U.S. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.128">over US$1.2 trillion</a>. And lead-related problems may be much greater and more widespread than researchers previously thought because lead exposure may also affect <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.4192">everyday personality traits</a>.</p>
<p>To determine whether lead exposure causes personality changes, my team and I examined personality differences before and after the U.S. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/evolution-clean-air-act">1970 Clean Air Act</a>. This law forced companies to remove lead from gasoline and led to massive reductions in atmospheric lead. </p>
<p>We compared local changes in atmospheric lead levels with changes in that area’s average personality trait scores, using data from an online personality questionnaire assessing <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/big-5-personality-traits">Big Five personality traits</a>: openness to experience (intellectual curiosity and creative imagination), extraversion (sociability and assertiveness), conscientiousness (organization and responsibility), agreeableness (compassion and respectfulness) and neuroticism (tendency toward anxiety, depression and hostility). We found that people born after lead levels began to decline had more mature personalities than those born when lead levels were high. They were slightly more conscientious, more agreeable and less neurotic. This suggests that lead may actually cause personality changes.</p>
<p>We also tested whether there were similar effects of lead exposure in Europe, where <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.01.036">lead was phased out from gasoline more gradually</a> than in the U.S. As in the U.S., we found that Europeans exposed to greater amounts of atmospheric lead were also less agreeable and more neurotic. However, they were not less conscientious. These results are an example of how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.2.322">psychological findings often differ across cultures</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413165/original/file-20210726-27-1monz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Factory smokestacks emitting clouds of pollution over a hazy skyline." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413165/original/file-20210726-27-1monz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413165/original/file-20210726-27-1monz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413165/original/file-20210726-27-1monz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413165/original/file-20210726-27-1monz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413165/original/file-20210726-27-1monz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413165/original/file-20210726-27-1monz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413165/original/file-20210726-27-1monz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1970 Clean Air Act scrubbed both lead out of the sky and its negative influences on personality development.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/pollution-royalty-free-image/575346013">Dirk Meister/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Personality traits <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1745-6916.2007.00047.x">influence nearly every aspect of people’s lives</a>, from happiness to career success to longevity. This means that the effects of lead exposure on personality are likely to have widespread consequences.</p>
<p>Thankfully, we found that lead exposure had a relatively small effect. But because <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1097%2FPHH.0000000000000889">so many millions of people have been exposed</a> to some amount of lead throughout their lives, these effects add up at the societal level.</p>
<p>Lead exposure is also a social justice issue. For example, Black children are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4605011/">twice as likely to have high levels of lead in their blood</a> as white children. Because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0000000000000891">vulnerable groups tend to have higher levels of lead exposure</a>, reducing childhood lead exposure is one step toward a more equitable society.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Since the Clean Air Act, children have <a href="https://www.epa.gov/americaschildrenenvironment/ace-biomonitoring-lead">much less lead exposure than in the 1960s and 1970s</a>. But more research is needed on other sources of exposure, like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2011.556556">lead pipes and contaminated groundwater</a>. Examining modern sources of lead exposure could help scientists better understand how they may be linked to personality change.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Personality traits are generally <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.08.034">quite stable</a> across time. But researchers have found that personality can change in response to life experiences. Because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000503">personality change has widespread consequences</a>, my team and I plan to continue studying how other experiences like traveling abroad in college or learning to use the internet in old age affect personality.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Schwaba does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Early exposure to lead pollution may lead to less mature personality traits as an adult.Ted Schwaba, Postdoctoral Researcher in Psychology, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1645972021-07-15T19:10:09Z2021-07-15T19:10:09ZWhat’s in wildfire smoke? A toxicologist explains the health risks and which masks can help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411549/original/file-20210715-17-gyrj5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C99%2C4413%2C2959&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wildfires filled Seattle with smoke in September 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-take-photos-against-the-backdrop-of-the-space-needle-news-photo/1228482175?adppopup=true">Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Smoke is turning the sky hazy <a href="https://twitter.com/TWCChrisBruin/status/1415723640528719881">across</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesGilbertWX/status/1415711862449184773">a large swath of the country</a> as <a href="https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn">dozens of large fires burn</a>, and a lot of people are wondering what’s in the air they’re breathing. </p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/phps/luke-montrose/">environmental toxicologist</a>, I study the effects of wildfire smoke and how they <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21708-0">differ</a> from other sources of air pollution. We know that breathing wildfire smoke can be harmful. Less clear is what the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-year-the-west-was-burning-how-the-2020-wildfire-season-got-so-extreme-148804">worsening wildfire landscape</a> will mean for public health in the future, but research is raising red flags.</p>
<p>In parts of the West, wildfire smoke now makes up <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1029/2018GH000144">nearly half the air pollution</a> measured annually. A new <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/new-analysis-shows-spikes-metal-contaminants-including-lead-2018-camp-fire-wildfire-smoke">study</a> by the California Air Resources Board found another threat: high levels of lead and other metals turned up in smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise. The findings suggest smoke from fires that reach communities could be even more dangerous than originally thought because of the building materials that burn.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Map of showing smoke across the entire country" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411541/original/file-20210715-13-jwt6fi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411541/original/file-20210715-13-jwt6fi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411541/original/file-20210715-13-jwt6fi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411541/original/file-20210715-13-jwt6fi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411541/original/file-20210715-13-jwt6fi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411541/original/file-20210715-13-jwt6fi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411541/original/file-20210715-13-jwt6fi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NOAA’s smoke forecast based on where fires were burning on July 15, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/HRRRsmoke/displayMapLocalDiskDateDomainZipTZA.cgi">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here’s a closer look at what makes up wildfire smoke and what you can do to protect yourself and your family.</p>
<h2>What’s in wildfire smoke?</h2>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-018-0064-7">What exactly is in a wildfire’s smoke</a> depends on a few key things: what’s burning – grass, brush or trees; the temperature – is it flaming or just smoldering; and the distance between the person breathing the smoke and the fire producing it.</p>
<p>The distance affects the ability of smoke to “age,” meaning to be acted upon by the Sun and other chemicals in the air as it travels. <a href="http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01034">Aging can make it more toxic</a>. Importantly, large particles like what most people think of as ash do not typically travel that far from the fire, but small particles, or aerosols, can travel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2018.06.006">across continents</a>.</p>
<p>Smoke from wildfires contains <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/airnow/wildfire-smoke/wildfire-smoke-guide-revised-2019.pdf">thousands of individual compounds</a>, including carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. The most prevalent pollutant by mass is particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, roughly 50 times smaller than a grain of sand. Its prevalence is one reason health authorities issue air quality warnings using PM 2.5 as the metric.</p>
<p>The new study on smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire found <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/new-analysis-shows-spikes-metal-contaminants-including-lead-2018-camp-fire-wildfire-smoke">dangerous levels of lead</a> in smoke blowing downwind as the fire burned through Paradise, California. The metals, which have been linked to health harms including high blood pressure and developmental effects in children with long-term exposure, traveled more than 150 miles on the wind, with concentrations 50 times above average in some areas.</p>
<h2>What does that smoke do to human bodies?</h2>
<p>There is another reason <a href="https://www.calhospital.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/wildfire_smoke_considerations_for_californias_public_health_officials_august_2019.pdf">PM2.5 is used to make health recommendations</a>: It defines the cutoff for particles that can travel deep into the lungs and cause the most damage.</p>
<p>The human body is equipped with natural defense mechanisms against particles bigger than PM2.5. As I tell my students, if you have ever <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/mucociliary-clearance">coughed up phlegm</a> or blown your nose after being around a campfire and discovered black or brown mucus in the tissue, you have witnessed these mechanisms firsthand.</p>
<p>The really small particles bypass these defenses and disturb the air sacs where oxygen crosses over into the blood. Fortunately, we have specialized immune cells present called macrophages. It’s their job to seek out foreign material and remove or destroy it. However, <a href="http://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305744">studies have shown</a> that repeated exposure to elevated levels of wood smoke can suppress macrophages, leading to increases in lung inflammation.</p>
<h2>What does that mean for COVID-19 symptoms?</h2>
<p>Dose, frequency and duration are important when it comes to smoke exposure. Short-term exposure can irritate the eyes and throat. Long-term exposure to wildfire smoke over days or weeks, or breathing in heavy smoke, can raise the risk of <a href="https://www.calhospital.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/wildfire_smoke_considerations_for_californias_public_health_officials_august_2019.pdf">lung damage</a> and may also contribute to <a href="https://health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/air/smoke_from_fire.htm">cardiovascular problems</a>. Considering that it is the macrophage’s job to remove foreign material – including smoke particles and pathogens – it is reasonable to make a <a href="http://doi.org/10.3109/08958378.2012.756086">connection</a> between smoke exposure and risk of viral infection.</p>
<p>Recent evidence suggests that long-term exposure to PM2.5 may make the coronavirus more deadly. A nationwide study found that even a small increase in PM2.5 from one U.S. county to the next was associated with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.05.20054502">large increase in the death rate</a> from COVID-19.</p>
<h2>What can you do to stay healthy?</h2>
<p>Here’s the advice I would give just about anyone downwind from a wildfire.</p>
<p>Stay informed about air quality by identifying local resources for air quality alerts, information about active fires and recommendations for better health practices. </p>
<p>If possible, avoid being outside or doing strenuous activity, like running or cycling, when there is an air quality warning for your area.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Dark smoke over tree tops looks menacing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353785/original/file-20200820-20-dsdu2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353785/original/file-20200820-20-dsdu2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353785/original/file-20200820-20-dsdu2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353785/original/file-20200820-20-dsdu2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353785/original/file-20200820-20-dsdu2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353785/original/file-20200820-20-dsdu2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353785/original/file-20200820-20-dsdu2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wildfire smoke pours over palm trees lining a street in Azusa, California, on Aug. 13, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/California-Wildfires/90e2257bf5394b46835b9d8b75b70e5c/15/0">AP Images/Marcio Jose Sanchez</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Be aware that not all face masks protect against smoke particles. Most cloth masks will not capture small wood smoke particles. That requires an N95 mask that fits and is worn properly. Without a proper fit, N95s do not work as well.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Establish a clean space. Some communities in western states have offered “clean spaces” programs that help people take refuge in buildings with clean air and air conditioning. However, during the pandemic, being in an enclosed space with others can create other health risks. At home, a person can create clean and cool spaces using a window air conditioner and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH5APw_SLUU">portable air purifier</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/how-smoke-fires-can-affect-your-health">The Environmental Protection Agency also advises</a> people to avoid anything that contributes to indoor air pollutants. That includes vacuuming that can stir up pollutants, as well as burning candles, firing up gas stoves and smoking.</p>
<p><em>This is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-in-wildfire-smoke-and-why-is-it-so-bad-for-your-lungs-144790">update to a story</a> originally published on Aug. 20, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Montrose does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research found that smoke from the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, carried high concentrations of lead. An environmental toxicologist explains what else you’re breathing and how to stay safe.Luke Montrose, Assistant Professor of Community and Environmental Health, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1582772021-05-04T12:15:56Z2021-05-04T12:15:56ZBiden’s infrastructure plan targets lead pipes that threaten public health across the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398397/original/file-20210503-13-1hswze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C0%2C5422%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A lead pipe (left) seen through a hole in the kitchen ceiling in the home of Desmond Odom, in Newark, New Jersey.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/EPADrinkingWaterLead/f8f74d0050304533ac70263c5c50bad7/photo">AP Photo/Julio Cortez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan includes a proposal to upgrade the U.S. drinking water distribution system by removing and replacing dangerous lead pipes. As a <a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MEp4948AAAAJ&hl=en">geochemist and environmental health researcher</a> who has studied the heartbreaking impacts of lead poisoning in children for decades, I am happy to see due attention paid to this silent killer, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GH000167">disproportionately affects poor communities of color</a>.</p>
<p>Biden’s proposal <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/">includes US$45 billion</a> to eliminate all lead pipes and service lines nationwide. The funding would go to <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dwsrf#:%7E:text=The%20Drinking%20Water%20State%20Revolving,to%20state%20safe%20water%20programs">programs</a> <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dwcapacity/water-infrastructure-improvements-nation-act-wiin-act-grant-programs">administered</a> by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. </p>
<p>This effort would affect an estimated <a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/american-jobs-plan-gives-water-infrastructure-much-needed-boost">6 million to 10 million homes</a>, along with <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/">400,000 schools and child care facilities</a>. I see it as one of the nation’s best chances to finally get the lead out of the nation’s drinking water, and its children.</p>
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<h2>Lead poisoning does permanent damage</h2>
<p>Lead poisoning is a major public health problem, because lead has permanent impacts on the brain, particularly in children. Young brains are <a href="https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/brain-architecture/">still actively forming</a> the amazing network of neurons that comprise their hardware. </p>
<p>Neurons are designed to use calcium, the most abundant mineral in the human body, as a transmitter to rapidly pass signals. Lead is able to penetrate the brain because lead molecules look a lot like calcium molecules. If lead is present in a child’s body, it can impair neuron development and cause permanent neural damage.</p>
<p>Children with lead poisoning have lower IQs, poor memory recall, high rates of attention deficit disorder and low impulse control. They tend to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/health-effects.htm">perform poorly at school</a>, which reduces their earning potential as adults. They also face increased risk of <a href="https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/lead-exposure-and-kidney-function">kidney disease</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9785">stroke and hypertension</a> as they age. Research has found strong connections between lead poisoning and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2017/06/01/new-evidence-that-lead-exposure-increases-crime/">incarceration for violent crimes</a>. </p>
<p>The prevalence of childhood lead poisoning has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1367/1539-4409(2003)003%3C0027:POLTIU%3E2.0.CO;2">declined significantly in the U.S.</a> over the past 50 years. That’s largely due to the elimination of leaded gasoline in the 1980s and the banning of most lead-based paints.</p>
<p>In the 1970s, nearly 90% of children in the U.S. ages 1 to 5 had blood lead levels <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5210a1.htm">above 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood</a>, which then was the “level of concern” under federal health guidelines. Today, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/health/virus-lead-poisoning-children.html">roughly 2% of U.S. children</a> have elevated blood lead levels. </p>
<p><iframe id="eqfB4" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/eqfB4/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>This decline is a public health success story – but researchers estimate that <a href="https://www.aafp.org/afp/2019/0701/p24.html">about 500,000 U.S. children</a> still have elevated blood lead levels. In 2012 the CDC adopted a new blood lead “reference value” of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/blood-lead-levels.htm">5 micrograms per deciliter or above</a>, which identifies children in the highest 2.5% of those tested for lead in their blood. </p>
<p>Health experts widely agree that there is <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health">no known “safe” blood lead concentration</a>. And as long as lead water pipes remain in service, children and families are vulnerable.</p>
<h2>No maps of lead service lines</h2>
<p>Like many U.S. bridges, roads and ports, America’s water systems are old. Much of the drinking water infrastructure in older cities was <a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/2016/world/infographic-the-age-of-u-s-drinking-water-pipes-from-civil-war-era-to-today/">built before 1950</a>, before researchers started to grapple with the toxicity of lead. </p>
<p>Most American cities have countless miles of lead service lines buried beneath streets and sidewalks and feeding into people’s homes. Utilities don’t know where many of these aging lines are and don’t have enough data to map them. Replacing them will require significant analysis, modeling, data and some guesswork.</p>
<p>Old service lines have repeatedly caused lead poisoning outbreaks in places like Washington, D.C.; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Flint-water-crisis">Flint, Michigan</a>; and <a href="https://www.njspotlight.com/2021/01/op-ed-lessons-from-newarks-aggressive-replacement-of-lead-service-lines/">Newark, New Jersey</a>. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/38/23211">The chemistry is a bit different</a> in each case. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398412/original/file-20210503-23-1cvv9hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Workers at an excavation remove lead pipes from underground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398412/original/file-20210503-23-1cvv9hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398412/original/file-20210503-23-1cvv9hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398412/original/file-20210503-23-1cvv9hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398412/original/file-20210503-23-1cvv9hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398412/original/file-20210503-23-1cvv9hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398412/original/file-20210503-23-1cvv9hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398412/original/file-20210503-23-1cvv9hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers remove water service lines in Trenton, New Jersey, on Jan. 9, 2020. The city is replacing 37,000 lead pipes over five years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/LeadWaterPipesNewJersey/3de7106d9ea547e89027f07a6e502a10/photo">AP Photo/Mike Catalini</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lead service lines typically develop a protective “plaque” of minerals on their inside walls after a short time, which effectively separates the toxic lead pipe from the water flowing through it. This coating, which is called scale, remains stable if the chemistry of the water coursing through it doesn’t change. But if that chemistry is altered, disaster can ensue.</p>
<p>In 2002, Washington, D.C., shifted from chlorine to chloramine for treating its water supply. Chloramine is a more modern disinfectant that does not <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-drinking-water-be-delivered-without-disinfectants-like-chlorine-and-still-be-safe-55476">form dangerous reactive chlorinated byproducts</a> as chlorine can. </p>
<p>This rapidly corroded the protective plaque lining the city’s pipes, flushing highly absorbable lead into homes. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dcs-decade-old-problem-of-lead-in-water-gets-new-attention-during-flint-crisis/2016/03/17/79f8d476-ec64-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html">Tens of thousands of children were exposed</a> over two years before the problem was adequately identified and fixed. </p>
<p>In Flint, state-appointed managers decided to save money during a fiscal crisis in 2014 by switching from Detroit water to water from the Flint River. Flint river water has completely different corrosivity than Detroit water, but officials <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b04034">did not require enough chemical analysis</a> to determine what additives should be used to maintain the pipe plaque. One egregious and ultimately toxic decision was to forgo the typical step of adding phosphate, which binds chemically with lead and prevents it from leaching out of pipes, in order to save <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/q-a-what-really-happened-to-the-water-in-flint-michigan/">about $100 per day</a>. </p>
<p>Corrosion chemistry is well controlled in many U.S. cities, but it is not a perfect science. And utilities don’t always have detection systems that adequately alert water suppliers to dangers at the tap. That’s why removing lead pipes is the only sure way to avoid the threat of more water crises. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AiU7GHzD_Ck?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Households can use some basic tests to identify water pipes that may be made of lead.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cities will need to innovate</h2>
<p>While $45 billion is a huge investment, in my view it probably isn’t enough to replace all lead pipes nationwide. Take Flint as an example. The estimated cost of replacing all of the city’s lead service lines is <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/05/27/flint-lead-lines-water-crisis/85032096/">about $50 million</a>. As a rough calculation, then, for $45 billion, the nation theoretically could remedy slightly fewer than 1,000 Flints. </p>
<p>But there are literally <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/12/18661193/lead-pipes-paint-flint-michigan-usa-cost-fix">thousands of U.S. cities to fix</a>. Some are smaller than Flint and thus likely cheaper to remediate, but others are much larger. </p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s newsletter explains what’s going on with the coronavirus pandemic. <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=coronavirus-going-on">Subscribe now</a>.</em>]</p>
<p>My own city, Indianapolis, has a population of about 850,000. That’s roughly 10 times as big as Flint, which means 10 times as many households and water distribution end points. What’s more, officials have only a rough idea of where to find the city’s lead service lines. There are ways to <a href="https://www.wateronline.com/doc/statistical-modeling-in-support-of-lead-service-line-identification-inventory-and-replacement-0001">statistically model</a> the likelihood that a given portion of the water system has lead service lines, using information such as water main sizes, locations and construction dates, but they are imperfect. </p>
<p>Cities will need to get creative to make whatever funds they get go as far as possible. As one example, I am working with colleagues to develop a citizen science project that will provide thousands of tests for lead at taps around Indianapolis. This effort, a partnership with the University of Notre Dame funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, may augment modeling with real data on levels of lead in homes, and will increase public awareness of this issue. </p>
<p>Lead water pipes are ticking time bombs in cities across the U.S. Other important sources of lead exposure, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13040358">soil and dust contamination</a>, also require urgent attention. But I believe fixing water systems is a critical step toward protecting children from the lifelong burdens of lead poisoning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Filippelli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>President Biden has proposed spending $45 billion to replace every lead water pipe and service line in the nation. A public health expert explains why he sees this as a worthwhile investment.Gabriel Filippelli, Professor of Earth Sciences and Director of the Center for Urban Health, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1584832021-04-15T12:39:46Z2021-04-15T12:39:46ZNearly 60 million Americans don’t drink their tap water, research suggests – here’s why that’s a public health problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395072/original/file-20210414-15-q3fwpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5607%2C3732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thirsty?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/kitchen-sink-with-running-water-royalty-free-image/168583229">deepblue4you/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine seeing a news report about lead contamination in drinking water in a community that looks like yours. It might make you think twice about whether to drink your tap water or serve it to your kids – especially if you also have experienced tap water problems in the past.</p>
<p>In a new study, my colleagues <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/anisha-patel?tab=research-and-scholarship">Anisha Patel</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francesca-Weaks">Francesca Weaks</a> and I estimate that approximately 61.4 million people in the U.S. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.06.21255016">did not drink their tap water</a> as of 2017-2018. Our research, which was released in preprint format on April 8, 2021, and has not yet been peer reviewed, found that this number has grown sharply in the past several years.</p>
<p>Other research has shown that about 2 million Americans <a href="https://www.urbanwaterslearningnetwork.org/resources/closing-the-water-access-gap-in-the-united-states-a-national-action-plan-nov-2019/">don’t have access to clean water</a>. Taking that into account, our findings suggest that about 59 million people have tap water access from either their municipality or private wells or cisterns, but don’t drink it. While some may have contaminated water, others <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/12/769783763/philadelphia-promotes-tap-water-amid-national-distrust">may be avoiding water that’s actually safe</a>.</p>
<p>Water insecurity is an underrecognized but growing problem in the U.S. Tap water distrust is part of the problem. And it’s critical to understand what drives it, because people who don’t trust their tap water shift to more expensive and often less healthy options, like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1468">bottled water or sugary drinks</a>.</p>
<p>I’m a human biologist and have studied <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=c89wo3AAAAAJ&hl=en">water and health</a> for the past decade in places as diverse as Lowland Bolivia and northern Kenya. Now I run the <a href="https://hhd.psu.edu/bbh/research/research-labs/water-health-and-nutrition-lab">Water, Health, and Nutrition Laboratory</a> at Pennsylvania State University. To understand water issues, I talk to people and use large datasets to see whether a problem is unique or widespread, and stable or growing.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vcCXCPD4lYY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A video from the South Coast Water District in southern California urges customers to choose tap water over bottled water.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An epidemic of distrust</h2>
<p>According to our research, there’s a growing epidemic of tap water distrust and disuse in the U.S. In a 2020 study, <a href="https://anthropology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/sera-young.html">anthropologist Sera Young</a> and I found that tap water avoidance was declining before the Flint water crisis that began in 2014. In 2015-2016, however, it started to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027657">increase again for children</a>. </p>
<p>Our new study found that in 2017-2018, the number of Americans who didn’t drink tap water increased at an alarmingly high rate, particularly for Black and Hispanic adults and children. Since 2013-2014 – just before the <a href="https://theconversation.com/michigan-says-flint-water-is-safe-to-drink-but-residents-trust-in-government-has-corroded-95358">Flint water crisis</a> began – the prevalence of adults who do not drink their tap water has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.06.21255016">increased by 40%</a>. Among children, not consuming tap has risen by 63%.</p>
<p>To calculate this change, we used data from the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/about_nhanes.htm">National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey</a>, a nationally representative survey that releases data in two-year cycles. Sampling weights that use demographic characteristics ensure that the people being sampled are representative of the broader U.S. population.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A city worker loads bottled water into a pickup truck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jackson, Mississippi, residents pick up bottled water at a city distribution center on Feb. 18, 2021. Much of the city was without because of problems at its water treatment plant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/WinterWeatherDeepSouth/a0ea7533576145119a3740a170af3eb6/photo">AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Racial disparities in tap water consumption</h2>
<p>Communities of color have long experienced environmental injustice across the U.S. Black, Hispanic and Native American residents are more likely to live in environmentally disadvantaged neighborhoods, with exposure to water that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12397">violates</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007361117">quality standards</a>.</p>
<p>Our findings reflect these experiences. We calculated that Black and Hispanic children and adults are two to three times more likely to report not drinking their tap water than members of white households. In 2017-2018, roughly 3 out of 10 Black adults and children and nearly 4 of 10 Hispanic adults and children didn’t drink their tap water. Approximately 2 of 10 Asian Americans didn’t drink from their tap, while only 1 of 10 white Americans didn’t drink their tap water. </p>
<p>When children don’t drink any water on a given day, research shows that they consume <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.0693">twice as many calories from sugary drinks</a> as children who drink water. Higher sugary drink consumption increases risk of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db271.htm">cavities, obesity and cardiometabolic diseases</a>. Drinking tap water provides fluoride, which lowers the risk of cavities. Relying on water alternatives is also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2017WR022186">much more expensive</a> than drinking tap water.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1308458331426549761"}"></div></p>
<h2>What erodes trust</h2>
<p>News reports – particularly high-visibility events like advisories to boil water – lead people to distrust their tap water even after the problem is fixed. For example, a 2019 study showed that water quality violations across the U.S. between 2006 and 2015 led to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1905385116">increases in bottled water purchases</a> in affected counties as a way to avoid tap water, and purchase rates remained elevated after the violation.</p>
<p>The Flint water crisis drew national attention to water insecurity, even though state and federal regulators were <a href="https://shorensteincenter.org/environmental-justice-unjust-coverage-of-the-flint-water-crisis/">slow to respond to residents’ complaints there</a>. Soon afterward, lead contamination was found in the water supply of Newark, New Jersey; the city is currently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/us/newark-lead-drinking-water-contamination-lawsuit-settlement/index.html">replacing all lead service lines</a> under a legal settlement. Elsewhere, media outlets and advocacy groups have reported finding tap water samples contaminated with <a href="https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/pfas_contamination/">industrial chemicals</a>, <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/water-quality/how-safe-is-our-drinking-water-a0101771201/">lead, arsenic</a> and <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/water-quality/more-than-25-million-americans-drink-from-the-worst-water-systems/#analysis">other contaminants</a>. </p>
<p>Many other factors can <a href="https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2016.143">cause people to distrust their water supply</a>, including smell, taste and appearance, as well as lower income levels. Location is also an issue: Older U.S. cities with aging infrastructure are more prone to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X20904431">water shutoffs and water quality problems</a>. </p>
<p>It’s important not to blame people for distrusting what comes out of their tap, because those fears are rooted in history. In my view, addressing water insecurity requires a two-part strategy: ensuring that everyone has access to clean water, and increasing trust so people who have safe water will use it.</p>
<p><iframe id="e8SWm" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/e8SWm/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Building confidence</h2>
<p>As part of his proposed infrastructure plan, President Joe Biden is asking Congress for <a href="https://waterfm.com/biden-unveils-2-trillion-infrastructure-plan-water-sector-reacts/">US$111 billion</a> to improve water delivery systems, replace lead pipelines and tackle other contaminants. The plan also proposes improvements for small water systems and underserved communities.</p>
<p>These are critical steps to rebuild trust. Yet, in my view, the Environmental Protection Agency should also provide better public education about water quality testing and <a href="https://www.drinkingwateralliance.org/aqwa">targeted interventions for vulnerable populations</a>, such as children and underserved communities. Initiatives to simplify and improve water quality reports can help people understand what’s in their water and <a href="http://policyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/WaterDataPrize_Report.pdf">what they can do if they think something is wrong with it</a>. </p>
<p><iframe id="gKnlV" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gKnlV/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Who delivers those messages is important. In areas like Flint, where former government officials have been indicted on charges including <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2021/01/14/nine-michigan-officials-charged-flint-water-crisis/4161106001/">negligence and perjury in connection with the water crisis</a>, the government’s word alone won’t rebuild trust. Instead, <a href="https://beltmag.com/flint-community-water-lab-trust/">community members can fill this critical role</a>.</p>
<p>Another priority is the 13%-15% of Americans who rely on <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/domestic-private-supply-wells?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects">private well water</a>, which is <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-04/documents/epa816f04030.pdf">not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act</a>. These households are responsible for their own water quality testing. Public funding would help them test it regularly and address any problems.</p>
<p>Public distrust of tap water in the U.S. reflects decades of policies that have reduced access to reliable, safe drinking water in communities of color. Fixing water lines is important, but so is giving people confidence to turn on the tap.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asher Rosinger receives funding from the National Science Foundation on an unrelated project. This work was supported by the Ann Atherton Hertzler Early Career Professorship funds, and the Penn State Population Research Institute (NICHD P2CHD041025). The funders had no role in the research or interpretation of results. </span></em></p>New research finds that tap water avoidance is on the rise in the US, especially among minorities. An expert on water and health calls for better public education about water quality and testing.Asher Rosinger, Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health, Anthropology, and Demography. Director, Water, Health, and Nutrition Laboratory, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1561212021-03-18T01:38:25Z2021-03-18T01:38:25ZTeeth contain detailed records of lead contamination in humans and other primates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390240/original/file-20210318-17-691fba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4478%2C2981&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lead is a powerful toxin. It can affect almost every organ and system in the body, and babies are extremely vulnerable to its harmful effects. Infants’ brains grow rapidly during the first year of life, and even low levels of lead exposure have been associated with brain development deficits. </p>
<p>It’s also more common than you might think. Many popular baby foods and infant formulas available in the US were recently <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969718334442">found</a> to contain elevated levels of lead and other heavy metals. </p>
<p>Few studies have examined Australian-sourced infant formulas and foods, and those that have show lead levels are generally low. However, more than half of the products sold in Australia are imported — so international problems are still a concern.</p>
<p>Lead leaves traces in growing teeth. In a new <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bies.202000298">study</a> published in BioEssays, we used a very sensitive technique called laser-ablation mapping to analyse the teeth of young macaque monkeys. We found traces of lead from both commercial infant formula and the milk of their own mothers. This provided clues of events that happened years, or even decades, earlier.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-safe-is-your-baby-food-155443">How safe is your baby food?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Diagram showing the process of laser-ablation mapping of teeth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386794/original/file-20210227-15-19cb2m2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386794/original/file-20210227-15-19cb2m2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386794/original/file-20210227-15-19cb2m2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386794/original/file-20210227-15-19cb2m2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386794/original/file-20210227-15-19cb2m2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386794/original/file-20210227-15-19cb2m2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386794/original/file-20210227-15-19cb2m2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How laser-ablation mapping works: a) the tooth is sliced open; b) a small sample is vaporised by laser; c) the levels of different elements over the span of tooth growth is determined with a mass spectrometer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15493">Arora et al. (2017), Nature Communications</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The stories teeth tell</h2>
<p>The development of teeth records each day of our childhoods, <a href="https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/birth-certificate-neonatal-lines/">including birth</a>, as well as the chemistry of the food and water we consume. Public health specialists in Australia and the US have worked out <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/custom-media/mount-sinai/in-teeth-markers-of-disease/">how to measure</a> infants’ metal intake using the concentrations of different elements and growth lines in teeth. </p>
<p>Our team honed this analytical model through a 2013 <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12169">study</a> of human, monkey, and Neanderthal nursing histories. We tracked changes in the trace element barium, which is stored in bones and teeth, and concentrated in calcium-rich milk. While barium is toxic in large amounts or certain compounds, small amounts in milk and foods like Brazil nuts do not seem to be particularly harmful. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/got-milk-our-breastfeeding-habits-are-older-than-you-think-14577">Got milk? Our breastfeeding habits are older than you think</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386789/original/file-20210227-19-1abud9u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386789/original/file-20210227-19-1abud9u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386789/original/file-20210227-19-1abud9u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386789/original/file-20210227-19-1abud9u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386789/original/file-20210227-19-1abud9u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386789/original/file-20210227-19-1abud9u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386789/original/file-20210227-19-1abud9u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Changes in the concentrations of different elements may indicate milk intake following birth (blue to orange), the end of exclusive suckling (orange to green), and the cessation of milk intake (green to blue) in primate teeth. The neonatal line (marked NL) marks birth, and identifying microscopic daily growth increments allows precise age estimates of childhood dietary changes, health challenges, and lead exposure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://LINK.TK">Smith et al. BioEssays (2021).</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our new study we were able to show a precise correspondence between the onset of suckling and elevated lead levels, which disappeared when the macaque infants stopped consuming Enfamil formula or mothers’ milk. Captive monkey mothers may be exposed to lead from water pipes or old paint, as lead was once a widely used paint additive that has a pleasant sweet taste.</p>
<h2>How barium and lead get into teeth</h2>
<p>Milk is an important source of calcium for infant growth, but it may also contain other less helpful ingredients. Barium and lead are known as <em>bone-seeking elements</em>: when abundant they can transfer to the bloodstream and substitute for calcium in the hard mineral that strengthens our growing bones and teeth. </p>
<p>We’ve also discovered that when young monkeys become very sick, they may tap their skeletal stores of calcium to maintain metabolic balance, also inadvertently releasing lead and barium from bones back into the bloodstream and ultimately locking them into growing teeth. This form of elemental recycling means that we can also explore health histories after individuals stop nursing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386796/original/file-20210227-23-153bzpy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386796/original/file-20210227-23-153bzpy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386796/original/file-20210227-23-153bzpy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386796/original/file-20210227-23-153bzpy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386796/original/file-20210227-23-153bzpy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386796/original/file-20210227-23-153bzpy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386796/original/file-20210227-23-153bzpy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monkey molar showing formation timing on the microscope image (left) and lead concentrations (normalized to calcium on the right). Lead in the enamel drops markedly with the cessation of formula (Enfamil) intake at 112 days of age (red arrows), which is even more apparent in the underlying dentine. A second macaque infant provided Enfamil in 1976–77 also implicates this commercial source, consistent with reports of metal contamination of various human infant formulas. Image credit: Smith et al. (2021) <em>BioEssays</em>.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The origin of lead found in humans’ teeth is more difficult to pin down than it is for captive monkeys. Likely factors range from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/22/lead-levels-among-children-in-south-australias-port-pirie-reach-decade-high">environmental pollution</a> and <a href="https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2102/S00130/no-level-of-lead-is-safe-in-drinking-water-says-master-plumbers.htm">drinking water</a> to soils used to grow food. Public health crises such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis">water contamination in Flint, Michigan</a> in 2014–2015 are currently under investigation to better understand the timing and degree of lead exposure in children from that region. </p>
<p>Our new study also revealed wild primates can be exposed to lead in their natural environments. We found lead bands in the teeth of baboons that grew up in Ethiopia and orangutans from Borneo and Sumatra. While human industrial activity may explain some of these cases, we <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/10/eaau9483.full">recently uncovered</a> lead intake in Neanderthal children roughly 250,000 years ago. </p>
<p>In that instance the lead was likely derived from geological deposits in southeast France, a region that has since been commercially mined. The two Neanderthals likely ate or drank something contaminated with lead, although we couldn’t rule out the possibility they may have inhaled lead released into the air through combustion during the winter and early spring.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-teeth-can-tell-about-the-lives-and-environments-of-ancient-humans-and-neanderthals-104923">What teeth can tell about the lives and environments of ancient humans and Neanderthals</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Studies of nonhuman primates and ancient hominins help us to better understand our own physiology, including the sensitive recording systems inside our own bodies. They point to complex environmental problems as well as the dangers of the natural world. </p>
<p>Our study adds to the evidence that lead exposure is common around the world. To safeguard our health, we need better regulation of food, water, and air quality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tanya M. Smith receives funding from the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Austin receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, USA. </span></em></p>Like rings in tree trunks, the layers of our teeth carry a detailed record of our growth — and reveal lead contamination is common.Tanya M. Smith, Professor in the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution & Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith UniversityChristine Austin, Assistant Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1479722021-01-11T13:14:46Z2021-01-11T13:14:46ZConsumer electronics have changed a lot in 20 years – systems for managing e-waste aren’t keeping up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376831/original/file-20201231-49872-1uzkolc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C11%2C3864%2C2572&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most of the world's electronics are not recycled, posing health and environmental risks. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/abandoned-and-rusted-laptop-lying-on-riverbed-royalty-free-image/108162816">catscandotcom/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s hard to imagine navigating modern life without a <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/are-cell-phones-becoming-more-popular-toilets">mobile phone</a> in hand. Computers, tablets and smartphones have transformed how we communicate, work, learn, share news and entertain ourselves. They became even more essential when the COVID-19 pandemic moved classes, meetings and social connections online. </p>
<p>But few people realize that our reliance on electronics comes with steep environmental costs, from mining minerals to disposing of used devices. Consumers can’t resist faster products with more storage and better cameras, but constant upgrades have created a <a href="https://time.com/5594380/world-electronic-waste-problem/">growing global waste challenge</a>. In 2019 alone, people discarded <a href="https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Environment/Documents/Toolbox/GEM_2020_def.pdf">53 million metric tons of electronic waste</a>.</p>
<p>In our work as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oZyg9b4AAAAJ&hl=en">sustainability researchers</a>, we study how consumer behavior and technological innovations influence the products that people buy, how long they keep them and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=z6q5FZMAAAAJ&hl=en">how these items are reused or recycled</a>. </p>
<p>Our research shows that while e-waste is rising globally, it’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13074">declining in the U.S.</a> But some innovations that are slimming down the e-waste stream are also making products harder to repair and recycle.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376843/original/file-20201231-15-1o0ofkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376843/original/file-20201231-15-1o0ofkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376843/original/file-20201231-15-1o0ofkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376843/original/file-20201231-15-1o0ofkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376843/original/file-20201231-15-1o0ofkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376843/original/file-20201231-15-1o0ofkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376843/original/file-20201231-15-1o0ofkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376843/original/file-20201231-15-1o0ofkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sending electronics to junkyards or landfills wastes an opportunity to recycle valuable materials inside them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/junkyard-with-old-computer-and-electronic-parts-ca-news-photo/144074229">Joe Sohm/Visions of America /Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Recycling used electronics</h2>
<p>Thirty years of data show why the volume of e-waste in the U.S. is decreasing. New products are <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bb5ff45b98f64123b3d408dd4a336b59">lighter and more compact than past offerings</a>. Smartphones and laptops have edged out desktop computers. Televisions with thin, flat screens have displaced bulkier <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode-ray_tube">cathode-ray tubes</a>, and streaming services are doing the job that once required standalone MP3, DVD and Blu-ray players. U.S. households now produce about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13074">10% less electronic waste by weight</a> than they did at their peak in 2015.</p>
<p>The bad news is that <a href="https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling">only about 35% of U.S. e-waste is recycled</a>. Consumers often don’t know where to recycle discarded products. If electronic devices decompose in landfills, hazardous compounds can leach into groundwater, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2019.1640807">lead</a> used in older circuit boards, mercury found in early LCD screens and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/30/toxins-in-plastics-blamed-for-health-environment-hazards">flame retardants</a> in plastics. This process poses health risks to people and wildlife. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"809910797182914560"}"></div></p>
<p>There’s a clear need to recycle e-waste, both to protect public health and to recover valuable metals. Electronics contain rare minerals and precious metals mined in socially and ecologically <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/congo-cobalt-mining-for-lithium-ion-battery/">vulnerable parts of the world</a>. Reuse and recycling can reduce demand for “<a href="https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2020/09/companies-struggle-comply-conflict-mineral-reporting-rules/">conflict minerals</a>” and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/how-a-circular-approach-can-turn-e-waste-into-a-golden-opportunity/">create new jobs and revenue streams</a>. </p>
<p>But it’s not a simple process. Disassembling electronics for repair or material recovery is expensive and labor-intensive. </p>
<p>Some recycling companies have illegally <a href="https://resource-recycling.com/e-scrap/2020/12/03/former-president-of-crt-processor-sentenced-to-prison/">stockpiled</a> or <a href="https://resource-recycling.com/e-scrap/2013/08/23/abandoned-warehouses-full-crts-found-several-states/">abandoned</a> e-waste. One Denver warehouse was called “<a href="https://resource-recycling.com/e-scrap/2013/08/23/abandoned-warehouses-full-crts-found-several-states/">an environmental disaster</a>” when 8,000 tons of lead-filled tubes from old TVs were discovered there in 2013. </p>
<p>The U.S. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/america-e-waste-gps-tracker-tells-all-earthfix">exports up to 40% of its e-waste</a>. Some goes to regions such as Southeast Asia that have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/08/world/asia/e-waste-thailand-southeast-asia.html">little environmental oversight and few measures to protect workers</a> who repair or recycle electronics. </p>
<h2>Disassembling products and assembling data</h2>
<p>Health and environmental risks have prompted 25 U.S. states and the District of Columbia to <a href="https://www.ecycleclearinghouse.org/maps.aspx">enact e-waste recycling laws</a>. Some of these measures ban landfilling electronics, while others require manufacturers to support recycling efforts. All of them target large products, like old cathode-ray tube TVs, which contain up to 4 pounds of lead.</p>
<p>We wanted to know whether these laws, adopted from 2003 to 2011, can keep up with the current generation of electronic products. To find out, we needed a better estimate of how much e-waste the U.S. now produces.</p>
<p>We mapped sales of electronic products from the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/a-terminal-condition/361313/">1950s</a> to the present, using data from industry reports, government sources and consumer surveys. Then we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0573-9">disassembled almost 100 devices</a>, from obsolete VCRs to today’s smartphones and fitness trackers, to weigh and measure the materials they contained.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374938/original/file-20201214-18-e30oa9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374938/original/file-20201214-18-e30oa9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374938/original/file-20201214-18-e30oa9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=197&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374938/original/file-20201214-18-e30oa9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=197&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374938/original/file-20201214-18-e30oa9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=197&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374938/original/file-20201214-18-e30oa9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374938/original/file-20201214-18-e30oa9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374938/original/file-20201214-18-e30oa9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A researcher takes apart a smartphone to find out what materials are inside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shahana Althaf</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374942/original/file-20201214-21-1eto45i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374942/original/file-20201214-21-1eto45i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374942/original/file-20201214-21-1eto45i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374942/original/file-20201214-21-1eto45i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374942/original/file-20201214-21-1eto45i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374942/original/file-20201214-21-1eto45i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374942/original/file-20201214-21-1eto45i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374942/original/file-20201214-21-1eto45i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This dissected tablet shows the components inside, each of which were logged, weighed and measured by researchers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Callie Babbitt</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We created a <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3986969">computer model to analyze the data</a>, producing one of the most detailed accounts of U.S. electronic product consumption and discards currently available.</p>
<h2>E-waste is leaner, but not necessarily greener</h2>
<p>The big surprise from our research was that U.S. households are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13074">producing less e-waste</a>, thanks to compact product designs and digital innovation. For example, a smartphone serves as an all-in-one phone, camera, MP3 player and portable navigation system. Flat-panel TVs are about 50% lighter than <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/06/15/15greenwire-some-see-e-waste-crisis-trailing-switch-to-dig-81110.html">large-tube TVs</a> and don’t contain any lead. </p>
<p>But not all innovations have been beneficial. To make lightweight products, manufacturers miniaturized components and glued parts together, making it harder to repair devices and more expensive to recycle them. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01890-3">Lithium-ion batteries</a> pose another problem: They are hard to detect and remove, and they can spark <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/28/21156477/recycling-plants-fire-batteries-rechargeable-smartphone-lithium-ion">disastrous fires</a> during transportation or recycling.</p>
<p>Popular features that consumers love – speed, sharp images, responsive touch screens and long battery life – rely on metals like cobalt, indium and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-rare-earths-crucial-elements-in-modern-technology-4-questions-answered-101364">rare-earth elements</a> that require immense energy and expense to mine. Commercial recycling technology cannot yet recover them profitably, although innovations are starting to emerge. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376830/original/file-20201231-49513-1tf9ypc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376830/original/file-20201231-49513-1tf9ypc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376830/original/file-20201231-49513-1tf9ypc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376830/original/file-20201231-49513-1tf9ypc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376830/original/file-20201231-49513-1tf9ypc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376830/original/file-20201231-49513-1tf9ypc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376830/original/file-20201231-49513-1tf9ypc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376830/original/file-20201231-49513-1tf9ypc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Apple’s new robot, Daisy, can disassemble nine different iPhone models to recover valuable materials that traditional recyclers cannot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/04/apple-adds-earth-day-donations-to-trade-in-and-recycling-program/">Apple</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reenvisioning waste as a resource</h2>
<p>We believe solving these challenges requires a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.05.038">proactive approach</a> that treats digital discards as resources, not waste. Gold, silver, palladium and other valuable materials are now more concentrated in e-waste than in natural ores in the ground. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200407-urban-mining-how-your-home-may-be-a-gold-mine">Urban mining</a>,” in the form of recycling e-waste, could replace the need to dig up scarce metals, reducing environmental damage. It would also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105248">reduce U.S. dependence</a> on <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/chinas-critical-minerals-national-security-meaning-supply-chain-interdependence">minerals imported from other countries</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376714/original/file-20201228-17-1yhxq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376714/original/file-20201228-17-1yhxq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=245&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376714/original/file-20201228-17-1yhxq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=245&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376714/original/file-20201228-17-1yhxq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=245&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376714/original/file-20201228-17-1yhxq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376714/original/file-20201228-17-1yhxq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376714/original/file-20201228-17-1yhxq7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Concentration of hazardous (left) and valuable (right) materials within the U.S. e-waste stream.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Althaf et al. 2020</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Government, industry and consumers all have roles to play. Progress will require designing products that are <a href="https://www.ifixit.com/">easier to repair</a> and reuse, and persuading consumers to <a href="https://earth911.com/eco-tech/ways-to-reuse-old-laptop/">keep their devices longer</a>. </p>
<p>We also see a need for responsive e-waste laws in place of today’s dated patchwork of state regulations. Establishing <a href="https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-u-s-laws-do-and-dont-support-e-recycling-and-reuse/">convenient</a>, <a href="https://sustainableelectronics.org/recyclers">certified</a> <a href="https://e-stewards.org/">recycling locations</a> can keep more electronics out of landfills. With retooled operations, recyclers can recover more valuable materials from the e-waste stream. Steps like these can help balance our reliance on electronic devices with systems that better protect human health and the environment. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Callie Babbitt receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the Consumer Technology Association, and the Staples Sustainable Innovation Lab.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shahana Althaf received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Consumer Technology Association, and the Staples Sustainable Innovation Lab.</span></em></p>Technical advances are reducing the volume of e-waste generated in the US as lighter, more compact products enter the market. But those goods can be harder to reuse and recycle.Callie Babbitt, Associate Professor of Sustainability, Rochester Institute of TechnologyShahana Althaf, Postdoctoral associate, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1287692020-01-07T13:14:52Z2020-01-07T13:14:52ZEPA’s ‘secret science’ rule will make it harder for the agency to protect public health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308532/original/file-20200105-11896-16h1pma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5176%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blood samples from pediatric health screenings can provide valuable data for public health research.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Lead-Testing-Michigan/93888290c7de46c28d566fe90abe955c/18/0">AP Photo/Carlos Osorio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration has worked to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html">weaken U.S. environmental regulations</a> in many areas, from water and air pollution to energy development and land conservation. One of its most controversial actions is known as the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-epas-secret-science-proposal-alarms-public-health-experts-96000">secret science” rule</a> because it would require scientists to disclose all of their raw data, including confidential medical records, for their findings to be considered in shaping regulations. This measure <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2020-29179/strengthening-transparency-in-pivotal-science-underlying-significant-regulatory-actions-and">has just been finalized</a>.</p>
<p>This proposal drastically limits what kinds of scientific and medical research the Environmental Protection Agency can draw on as it makes policy. According to press reports, an EPA advisory panel with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/11/04/pruitts-new-science-advisers-add-more-industry-experts-conservatives-to-the-mix/">many members appointed by President Trump</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/climate/epa-science-panel-trump.html">criticized the proposal</a>, saying it would do little to increase transparency and could limit what kinds of research get done.</p>
<p>As director of a <a href="http://www.urbanhealth.iupui.edu/">center on urban health</a>, I study issues including <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MEp4948AAAAJ&hl=en">human exposure to toxic substances</a> such as lead and mercury. Confidential patient information is a key resource for my work, and I believe that children’s health will suffer as a direct result of this rule.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308533/original/file-20200105-11909-u3qskf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308533/original/file-20200105-11909-u3qskf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308533/original/file-20200105-11909-u3qskf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308533/original/file-20200105-11909-u3qskf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308533/original/file-20200105-11909-u3qskf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308533/original/file-20200105-11909-u3qskf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308533/original/file-20200105-11909-u3qskf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308533/original/file-20200105-11909-u3qskf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite steps such as phasing out leaded gasoline, lead poisoning is still a serious public health problem across the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://directorsblog.health.azdhs.gov/program-successfully-reduces-unhealthy-lead-levels-in-children/">AZDHS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Using child health records to map lead exposure</h2>
<p>My work is made possible because researchers can obtain confidential patient records, under strict regulations and oversight to ensure their confidentiality throughout analysis. These controls are mandated under <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/guidance-materials-for-consumers/index.html">federal regulations</a> that were rightly instituted to protect people’s identities and health data pursuant to the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. </p>
<p>I started researching lead exposure hot spots in U.S. cities almost 15 years ago, well before thousands of kids were poisoned by lead in Flint. Pediatric exposure to lead results in permanent neurological effects – namely, reduced IQ and deficits in attention, learning and memory compared with nonintoxicated peers. These impacts <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health">are permanent</a>, so it is critical to identify and eliminate lead exposure sources before children are poisoned.</p>
<p>Because I did not have the resources to obtain and analyze millions of samples of soil, dust and water for lead, I turned to medical records. Children around the country have routine blood tests, and many of them include an assay for blood lead levels. I realized that if I could obtain those records, as well as each child’s age, test date and home address, I could map out the distribution of lead poisoning. </p>
<p>In an ideal world public health experts wouldn’t use maps based on kids who have already been permanently poisoned to find exposure sources. Nevertheless, 16,000 medical records later, I was able to produce a detailed block-by-block map of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-012-9474-y">blood levels in children</a> in Indianapolis.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308531/original/file-20200105-11904-1id8b3c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308531/original/file-20200105-11904-1id8b3c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308531/original/file-20200105-11904-1id8b3c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308531/original/file-20200105-11904-1id8b3c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308531/original/file-20200105-11904-1id8b3c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308531/original/file-20200105-11904-1id8b3c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308531/original/file-20200105-11904-1id8b3c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308531/original/file-20200105-11904-1id8b3c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blood lead levels of children in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the period February 2002 to December 2008 (n = 12,431) for children between ages 0 and 5.99 years (area = 1,044 km2).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.12952/journal.elementa.000059">Filippelli et al, 2012.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pinpointing exposure sources and timing</h2>
<p>This approach led me and my colleagues to two major discoveries that have improved communities and shaped policy at the local and national levels. Neither of these insights could be used to implement solutions under the proposed secret science rule.</p>
<p>First, we found that the pediatric lead poisoning distribution patterns we identified from medical records <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-012-9474-y">matched a rudimentary map</a> of patterns of legacy lead contamination – lead emitted over decades by sources such as leaded gasoline, lead-based paint and industrial emissions – that we constructed from separate research work on <a href="https://www.mapmyenvironment.com/">urban soil and dust</a>. This indicated that at least in Indianapolis, soil and contaminated dust generated from it was likely the major exposure mechanism for lead in children.</p>
<p>We were able to leverage that finding in some particularly contaminated neighborhoods where the EPA had previously carried out cleanups. Indeed, our work spurred the agency to reanalyze one of these poorly mitigated neighborhoods and reopen the cleanup over a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-completes-cleanup-100-properties-american-lead-site-indianapolis-soil-sampling">much broader target area</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ATNvg9RXzFE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Lead poisoning symptoms don’t appear until blood lead levels are high, so reducing exposure is the only effective way to prevent permanent damage.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, we were able to verify the source of seasonal variations in children’s blood lead levels. Through some basic atmospheric modeling, we identified seasonal dust generation as the main driver of this pattern. For example, when soil becomes drier for an extended period of time, it generates more dust that can be tracked into homes or blown into the air. If that soil happens to be contaminated with lead, the dust is also contaminated and becomes a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.7759">regional exposure source</a>.</p>
<p>After expanding this analysis to 10 different U.S. cities, we were confident enough to begin recommending to clinical networks that they take blood test dates into account. An August blood lead value could be double the level from a February test, so we believed it was important to consider timing in evaluating whether a child might be at risk of unsafe exposure. This led to the first such screening policy to be implemented around the timing of lead test results.</p>
<h2>Putting blinders on regulators</h2>
<p>Neither of these findings would have been possible without access to original, confidential patient medical records. For each patient we needed a specific home address and exact individual results from blood lead tests. These both are protected classes of personal information that must be kept confidential under federal regulations.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1201607312244387840"}"></div></p>
<p>I participated in 2011 in the EPA’s <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/264cb1227d55e02c85257402007446a4/B1B17FB48ACEFE8D8525776D006C55CE/$File/ISA_FOR_LEAD.PDF">Integrated Science Assessment for Lead</a> review process, in which the agency reviewed papers and consulted experts to determine whether provisions in the Clean Air Act regulating airborne lead exposure were adequately protecting Americans. Regulators were particularly interested in the small-scale links between blood lead levels and known sources of lead from dust that our research was finding. Eventually, the agency <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-and-hud-announce-new-lead-dust-standards-protect-childrens-health">lowered acceptable standards for lead in dust</a> in 2019.</p>
<p>Childhood lead exposure is still a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/graphics/lead-water/en/">public health hazard of epidemic proportions</a> in some parts of the U.S., particularly cities. The potential sources are relatively well known: soil, dust and water. The challenge is that researchers don’t have adequate environmental measurements for these sources. Until we do, fine-scaled results revealed by human health data remain our best way to identify sources, and thus inform policies to protect children. </p>
<p>Now, under the secret science rule, EPA officials will have to pretend that this kind of research doesn’t exist, since the patient records that it draws on can’t be made public. There are ways to reverse this measure: Congress could repeal it under the <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063712743">Congressional Review Act</a>, or the Biden administration could refuse to defend it in the face of legal challenges. The slowest path would be conducting a new rule-making to rewrite it. </p>
<p>Until one of these things happens, I believe the Trump administration’s action will leave hundreds of thousands of children across the U.S. at risk of a lifetime of avoidable harm from lead poisoning and other types of pollution that researchers analyze using private medical data.</p>
<p>[ <em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>. ]</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to reflect finalization of the rule and possible next steps.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Filippelli receives funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (Environmental Justice Small Grants Program) and from the Indianapolis Foundation</span></em></p>The EPA has just adopted a rule that limits what kinds of science regulators can use in setting rules. A scholar explains how this shift could impede his work mapping child lead poisoning.Gabriel Filippelli, Professor of Earth Sciences and Director of the Center for Urban Health, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1289922019-12-22T10:53:01Z2019-12-22T10:53:01ZGreat Lakes waters at risk from buried contaminants and new threats<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308114/original/file-20191220-11951-164dj10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C13%2C1756%2C1180&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A harmful algal bloom in the western basin of Lake Erie in August 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(NOAA/Aerial Associates Photography, Inc. by Zachary Haslick/flickr)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nickle Beach, Copper Harbor, Silver Bay. These places, all situated on the shores of the Laurentian Great Lakes, evoke the legacy of mining connected with the region. </p>
<p>While mining operations for metal ores and their refining have all but ceased here, there are renewed concerns over the safety of our Great Lakes source waters. One only has to think back to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.5942/jawwa.2016.108.0195">2014 water crisis in Flint, Mich.</a> that exposed more than 100,000 people to elevated lead levels or to <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/lead-in-water.html">more recent headlines</a> over lead contamination in water distributed from Canadian taps. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lead-tainted-water-how-to-keep-homes-schools-daycares-and-workplaces-safe-126815">Lead-tainted water: How to keep homes, schools, daycares and workplaces safe</a>
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<p>The Great Lakes basin is home to more than 35 million people distributed across two nations and numerous First Nations. They all rely on this resource for potable water, employment, sustenance and recreational opportunities. </p>
<p>Yet, environmental concerns are a recurring theme, compromising beneficial uses of the lakes and connecting rivers and posing a threat to a <a href="http://www.gsgp.org/media/1818/2016-cglslgp-bmo-economic-report.pdf">combined GDP of US$5.8 trillion across the region</a>. </p>
<p>Canadians have come to expect access to safe, clean and reliable drinking water, as well as access to lakes and rivers for recreational use. However, a legacy of natural resource extraction and industrial use, together with new pressures on freshwater ecosystems, challenge the integrity and sustainable use of these resources. </p>
<h2>An A grade, for now</h2>
<p>Clearly, past environmental crises like <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25037121">mercury pollution of Lake St. Clair</a> in the 1970s, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.2166/wqrj.1986.038">St. Clair River’s blob of perchloroethylene (a dry-cleaning solvent)</a> in 1985, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/152873902753338572">outbreak of gastroenteritis in Walkerton, Ont.</a> in 2000, the <a href="https://www.hrwc.org/our-watershed/threats/pfas-and-the-huron-river/">contamination of Michigan’s Huron River with PFAS (a family of persistent chemicals)</a> in 2017, and the Flint water crisis provide compelling evidence of the need to control contaminants at their source and avoid another tipping point.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308115/original/file-20191220-11929-1aw4ya0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308115/original/file-20191220-11929-1aw4ya0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308115/original/file-20191220-11929-1aw4ya0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308115/original/file-20191220-11929-1aw4ya0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308115/original/file-20191220-11929-1aw4ya0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308115/original/file-20191220-11929-1aw4ya0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308115/original/file-20191220-11929-1aw4ya0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People gather outside Flint, Mich., city hall in January 2016 to protest the governor’s handling of the city’s water crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Proctor/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most people who call Ontario home live within the watershed of one of our four Great Lakes: Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario. Over 80 per cent of Ontarians receive their drinking water from the lakes. </p>
<p>Considering the high dependency within the province on the Great Lakes, we are fortunate that the protection of these source waters is a priority of Ontario’s <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/06c22">Clean Water Act</a>. The province, as recently as 2011, received an A grade in Canada’s <a href="https://www.ecojustice.ca/case/waterproof-monitoring-canadas-drinking-water/">drinking water report card</a> issued by the environmental law non-profit Ecojustice.</p>
<p>Ontario’s <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/source-protection">Source Water Protection Plan</a> began in 2004 on the heels of the tragedy in Walkerton. A total of 38 local plans are currently in place, covering 95 per cent of Ontario’s population. Each plan identifies and ranks the risk of land-use patterns, such as locations of waste disposal sites, and effluent threats, such as industrial waste and fertilizers, that could lead to microbial, chemical or radiological contamination.</p>
<p>While the province is doing a good job protecting our Great Lakes source waters to ensure the safety of our drinking water, will these programs continue to protect us into the future and can they address vulnerabilities particular to our Great Lakes? </p>
<h2>Heightened threat from climate change?</h2>
<p>While the remaining industrial activity on the Great Lakes is regulated, the lakes themselves contain reservoirs of legacy contaminants, mostly in their sediments, that are vulnerable to resuspension. Metals, including mercury, PCBs and other persistent organic compounds top the list of concern. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2018.11.008">Resuspension is becoming more common under climate change</a> with high water levels, declining ice cover and increased frequency and intensity of major storm events. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308123/original/file-20191220-11891-gw3bbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308123/original/file-20191220-11891-gw3bbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308123/original/file-20191220-11891-gw3bbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308123/original/file-20191220-11891-gw3bbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308123/original/file-20191220-11891-gw3bbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308123/original/file-20191220-11891-gw3bbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308123/original/file-20191220-11891-gw3bbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A crowd of swimmers and boaters gather at the annual (unsanctioned) Jobbie Nooner boating party in Lake St. Clair, Mich., in June 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(U.S. Coast Guard/flickr)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, the manifestations of climate change in the region may be placing our drinking water systems at risk from a myriad of threats. These concerns include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.04.011">antibiotic-resistant bacteria</a>, threats from emerging chemicals, increases in discharge from combined sewer overflows and enhanced agricultural runoff of fertilizers and manure, which are implicated in the massive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2016.01.003">harmful algal blooms that have plagued Lake Erie’s western basin</a> in recent decades.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/great-lakes-flooding-the-warning-signs-that-homes-must-be-moved-122697">Great Lakes flooding: The warning signs that homes must be moved</a>
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<p>While Source Water Protection Plans provide sound tools for managing our watersheds, we must remain vigilant and develop better risk-based tools that consider legacy and emerging chemical threats especially as they relate to changes to <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-driving-rapid-shifts-between-high-and-low-water-levels-on-the-great-lakes-118095">high Great Lakes water levels</a> and increasing intensity of storms. </p>
<p>For example, a sediment disturbance triggered by high winds or shipping accidents could be addressed in a manner similar to chemical spills, closing water intakes until the threat has subsided.</p>
<h2>Investing in our future</h2>
<p>And oversight must go beyond source waters: the renewed concerns in Canada over lead contamination of our drinking water have refocused attention on the need to invest in municipal infrastructure to help ensure a safe and secure water supply. </p>
<p>These investments need to consider old threats, such as replacing lead service lines and antiquated plumbing, coupled with new tools to address growing vulnerabilities related to increased storm-induced discharge events, nutrient remobilization and harmful algal blooms being produced under a changing climate.</p>
<p>The adage holds true — an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128992/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Michael Lee McKay receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and from Environment and Climate Change Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Edward Gagnon receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ken G. Drouillard receives funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks. He is affiliated with the Detroit River Canadian Clean-Up Steering Committee and Monitoring and Research Committee. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Hartig and Michael Siu do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Great Lakes contain reservoirs of legacy contaminants, mostly in their sediments, that are vulnerable to resuspension.Robert Michael McKay, Executive Director, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of WindsorJoel Edward Gagnon, Professor and Director, School of the Environment, University of WindsorJohn Hartig, Visiting Scholar, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of WindsorKen G. Drouillard, Professor, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of WindsorMichael Siu, Vice-President, Research and Innovation, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1268152019-11-12T22:01:41Z2019-11-12T22:01:41ZLead-tainted water: How to keep homes, schools, daycares and workplaces safe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301366/original/file-20191112-178494-19xfcz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=191%2C66%2C4500%2C3172&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Health Canada has some of the strongest limits on lead in the world, but they can't be effective without testing and a plan to replace pipes. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We worked behind the scenes with dozens of journalists on “<a href="http://www.globalnews.ca/taintedwater">Tainted Water</a>,” a year-long investigation into lead-contaminated drinking water in Canada. We were shocked by the results.</p>
<p>The journalists, co-ordinated by Concordia University’s Institute for Investigative Journalism, retrieved the results of municipal lead tests from 14 Canadian cities via Freedom of Information Act requests. They also collected water samples by knocking on doors and interviewed people who assumed their water was safe.</p>
<p>As the results poured in, any illusions we had about widespread compliance with lead safety standards for drinking water quickly evaporated.</p>
<h2>The problem with old plumbing</h2>
<p>One-third of water samples, most of them taken from older homes suspected to have lead service lines, exceeded Health Canada’s new guidance of five parts per billion (ppb); 18 per cent exceeded 15 ppb. <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6125107/lead-levels-5-canadian-cities-flint-tainted-water/">Five cities</a> — Montréal, Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Rupert, B.C. and Moose Jaw, Sask. — had levels of lead in their water that were comparable with Flint, Mich., during its peak period of water contamination. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301392/original/file-20191112-178516-18ywhwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301392/original/file-20191112-178516-18ywhwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301392/original/file-20191112-178516-18ywhwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301392/original/file-20191112-178516-18ywhwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301392/original/file-20191112-178516-18ywhwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301392/original/file-20191112-178516-18ywhwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301392/original/file-20191112-178516-18ywhwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crews work to replace lead-tainted pipes in Flint, Mich. in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Ontario, the only province that required schools to test their water, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6107982/ontario-schools-daycares-lead-levels/">more than 2,400 schools and daycare centres</a> exceeded the federal guideline.</p>
<p>These results confirm what studies have found over the past 10 years; lead-tainted water is, too often, present in our daycares and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2018.04.045">schools</a>, in our workplaces and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2013.02.010">homes</a>.</p>
<p>Drinking water that contains five parts per billion of lead — the equivalent to five tablespoons of lead in an Olympic-sized swimming pool — increases the amount of lead circulating in our blood by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1493">20 to 30 per cent</a>; lead in water is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2013.067">primary source for infants</a> who drink formula made with tap water.</p>
<p>The news wasn’t all bad. Some cities, like Toronto and Ottawa, already use chemicals to reduce leaching of lead from water pipes and, predictably, the amount of lead in drinking water plummeted. Corrosion control also reduces damage to drinking water pipes. Several cities have already begun to replace lead service lines.</p>
<h2>Health impacts of lead</h2>
<p>The amount of lead found in our blood today is much lower than levels found five decades ago. Yet the amount of lead in our bodies, which is mostly stored in our bones, is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2542-3_1">10- to 100-times</a> higher than levels found in our pre-industrial ancestors. On an evolutionary timescale, we are still heavily lead-exposed.</p>
<p>Scientists have found that lead — a metal so toxic that the World Health Organization said, “there is no safe level” — elevates the risk for various health problems. A pregnant woman who has too much lead in her blood is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.12756">more likely to deliver her baby preterm</a>. Minute amounts of lead <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5685">diminishes a child’s ability to learn</a>. An uptick in a <a href="https://www.dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.chemosphere.2012.01.017">man’s lead exposure reduces his fertility</a>. </p>
<p>Along with air pollution and smoking, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(18)30025-2">lead irritates the interior lining of blood vessels that feed the heart</a>, causing plaque build-up and elevating the risk of a heart attack in middle-aged and older people.</p>
<h2>A national strategy for safe water by 2030</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/environmental-workplace-health/reports-publications/water-quality/guidelines-canadian-drinking-water-quality-summary-table.html">Health Canada’s new guideline</a> for unsafe amounts of lead in water — five ppb — is among the strongest in the world, but it is useless unless we test the tap water using a standardized protocol mimicking how people drink the water, and then act decisively on the results.</p>
<p>In 2017, Parliament’s Committee on Environment and Sustainability <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/ENVI/Reports/RP9037962/envirp08/envirp08-e.pdf">reviewed</a> the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and recommended expanding rights for transparency and public participation in decision-making about toxic chemicals, like lead. The committee also recommended legally binding and enforceable national standards for drinking water. We agree.</p>
<p>Canadians should not have to rely on investigative reporters to force release of lead tests done by public health agencies or to show that drinking water in some Canadian cities is worse than in Flint, Mich. Likewise, utilities and not reporters should be telling consumers how to best protect themselves from water lead using remedial flushing, lead filters and bottled water.</p>
<p>We call on the federal government to establish a national commission and develop a strategy to achieve safe water for all Canadians by 2030. The lack of safe drinking water in our cities — and in <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/this-ontario-first-nations-boil-water-advisory-has-been-in-effect-for-25-years/">many First Nations communities</a> — is a threat to public health and will create a public crisis of confidence.</p>
<p>It won’t be easy to fix the aging system of pipes transporting water to our taps, but Canadians should be able to trust that the water we drink is safe.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126815/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Lanphear has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Dr. Lanphear, who is the current President of the International Society for Children's Health and Environment, has served as an expert witness in lead poisoning cases, but he received no personal payment. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Edwards receives funding from the National Science Foundation, American Water Works Association, many water utilities and trade organizations. He led the Flintwaterstudy citizen science team, that helped uncover the Flint water crisis, which is the subject of hundreds of lawsuits to which Edwards is a fact witness (i.e., not a party to the lawsuits). His testimony and records related to Flint have been subpoenaed for both civil and criminal lawsuits. He has been outspoken about misconduct by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, U.S EPA, state governments, and water utilities in relation to handling lead-in-water issues from 2003-2015, and he has defended these agencies' actions since they apologized in 2016 and worked on the Flint recovery. Edwards has testified to the U.S. Congress six times on lead in water issues since 2004. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michele Prevost has received research funding from CFI, NSERC, provincial agencies, hospitals, municipalities and technology companies. She has consulted for Canadian provincial and federal ministries of health, education and environment and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Prevost is a member of the INSPQ committee on microbial standards, of the CSA Z317.1 (plumbing systems in HCF) and BNQ 3660 (distribution systems). Committee work is not retributed.</span></em></p>An investigation showed that five Canadian cities had lead levels in their water on par with those in Flint, Mich. during its peak period of water contamination.Bruce Lanphear, Professor of Children's Environmental Health, Simon Fraser UniversityMarc Edwards, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia TechMichele Prevost, Professor and Principal Chairholder, NSERC Industrial Chair on Drinking Water, Polytechnique MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1181532019-09-03T11:15:25Z2019-09-03T11:15:25ZHow to address America’s lead crisis and provide safe drinking water for all<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288477/original/file-20190819-123716-1utygm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Warning signs in the Newark Health Department after the city learned that lead service lines to houses still were contaminating water. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Newark-Lead-in-Water/96452a8543f940898a4a8b06f7dd11d2/5/0">Seth Wenig/AP</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-behind-the-flint-water-crisis-corrosion-of-pipes-erosion-of-trust-53776">Flint drinking water crisis</a> erupted five years ago, Americans have realized that many cities and towns struggle to ensure safe water. Currently <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750806632/newarks-drinking-water-problem-lead-and-unreliable-filters">residents of Newark, New Jersey</a> are drinking bottled water after the city realized lead filters it handed out <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/nyregion/newark-water-lead.html?module=inline">had failed</a>.</p>
<p>While most water systems in the United States <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-drinking-water-supply-is-mostly-safe-but-thats-not-good-enough-115028">provide reliable, high-quality drinking water</a>, our research has shown that as of a few years ago, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719805115">21 million people</a> in the United States relied on water from utilities with health violations. Why? Infrastructures are aging, environmental hazards are evolving and cities lack the funds to make fixes. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.epa.gov/lead/learn-about-lead">No amount of lead</a> in the body is safe, and children under age five are especially at risk. Lead poisoning can damage the central nervous system, reduce IQ, delay growth and cause behavior and learning problems. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/factsheets/Lead_fact_sheet.pdf">Nearly half a million children</a> in the U.S. have elevated blood lead levels. Exposure comes primarily from lead paint, but lead in drinking water also contributes. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pE7IqHwAAAAJ&hl=en">Our research group</a> studies long-term <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719805115">trends in drinking-water quality</a> and what factors cause unsafe water. Our studies have shown that this public health crisis can be corrected through better enforcement, stricter sampling protocols, revised federal regulations and more funding for state agencies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288476/original/file-20190819-123720-11bh5og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288476/original/file-20190819-123720-11bh5og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288476/original/file-20190819-123720-11bh5og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288476/original/file-20190819-123720-11bh5og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288476/original/file-20190819-123720-11bh5og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288476/original/file-20190819-123720-11bh5og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288476/original/file-20190819-123720-11bh5og.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Loading bottled water in Newark, New Jersey, where city officials have found high lead levels in homes where they had installed filters to remove it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Newark-Lead-in-Water/95dfb6524b2b45b485d92bccdd3268f7/2/0">AP Photo/Seth Wenig</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lead contamination in water is widespread</h2>
<p>Since it began regulating lead in 1991, the Environmental Protection Agency has reported nearly 7,000 violations of the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/lead-and-copper-rule">federal Lead and Copper Rule</a>, which sets maximum levels of these metals in drinking water. Of these violations, 4,110 occurred in community water systems, which serve people year-round. Another 2,639 were recorded in noncommunity water systems that serve places like schools. The violations have fluctuated over two decades, showing no clear downward trend.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279618/original/file-20190614-158953-1ax5ojx.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279618/original/file-20190614-158953-1ax5ojx.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279618/original/file-20190614-158953-1ax5ojx.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279618/original/file-20190614-158953-1ax5ojx.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279618/original/file-20190614-158953-1ax5ojx.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279618/original/file-20190614-158953-1ax5ojx.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279618/original/file-20190614-158953-1ax5ojx.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279618/original/file-20190614-158953-1ax5ojx.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Lead and Copper Rule, which regulates levels of these metals in drinking water, has been violated more than 6,000 times since the early 1990s. Community water systems serve year-round populations of at least 25 people; noncommunity water systems regularly supply a given population at least six months of the year in settings such as schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://csr.qlik.com/a/sense/app/2d9a5af2-7d5f-485a-8647-dc44c5c6f629">Columbia Water Center</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Between 2014 and 2018 the EPA reported 740 violations of the Lead and Copper Rule at community water systems. Montgomery and Harris counties in Texas had the highest number of violations. Several counties in the Northeast violated the rule multiple times, including Baltimore and Worcester, Massachusetts. </p>
<p>Although violations in cities are rare, six communities with populations of 100,000 people or more had water with too much lead and copper, including Portland, Oregon; Providence, Rhode Island; and systems in northern New Jersey, Mississippi and Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Very high lead levels tend to appear in very small communities. Three towns with fewer than 3,000 people – two in Michigan and one in Utah – experienced levels over 100 times the regulatory limit.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279620/original/file-20190614-158936-mvnz50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279620/original/file-20190614-158936-mvnz50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279620/original/file-20190614-158936-mvnz50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279620/original/file-20190614-158936-mvnz50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279620/original/file-20190614-158936-mvnz50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279620/original/file-20190614-158936-mvnz50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279620/original/file-20190614-158936-mvnz50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279620/original/file-20190614-158936-mvnz50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">County-level map depicting violations of the Lead and Copper Rule since the Flint crisis, 2014-2018. Only violations at community water systems are included.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://csr.qlik.com/a/sense/app/2d9a5af2-7d5f-485a-8647-dc44c5c6f629">Columbia Water Center</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lead accumulates as water travels through pipes</h2>
<p>At treatment plants, lead levels often are acceptable – but then they rise as water flows through service lines. Acidic water can corrode lead pipes and carry lead that leaches from them to the tap. Utilities can’t fully control the problem because property owners usually own the pipes that connect homes to the water mains. </p>
<p>Until the 1950s, lead pipes to houses were common. By 1986 they were banned, but old lead pipes remain – and are corroding – across the country, especially in the Northeast, Midwest and older urban areas.</p>
<p>Nearly <a href="https://www.awwa.org/Portals/0/files/membership/member%20recruitment/AWWA%20in%%2020Action.pdf">one-third of water systems</a> in the U.S. report that at least some of their service lines contain lead. The exact number of lead service lines is estimated at <a href="https://www.awwa.org/Portals/0/files/membership/member%20recruitment/AWWA%20in%%2020Action.pdf">7 to 11 million</a> - more than 50,000 miles of lead pipes. This would mean that service lines to the homes of about 15 to 22 million people, or 7% of those served by a community water system, could contain lead.</p>
<p>More than one in five utilities <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060039790">do not know</a> whether lead service lines exist for the homes they serve. Addressing this problem will require the federal government to update regulations, while states improve monitoring and enforcement. The EPA does not require lead testing in schools, and sampling procedures at community water systems can be inconsistent. </p>
<p>Lead is one of the few water contaminants that utilities are required to measure at a customer’s home, and utilities do not always follow EPA sampling procedures in practice. A violation is incurred only if 10% or more of samples have concentrations above the action level for lead, which is 15 parts per billion. Some utilities take many more samples than required and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/02/lead-water-testing-cheats-chicago-boston-philadelphia">discard those with high lead levels</a>, a 2016 investigation found. </p>
<p>Another hurdle is reduced funding for enforcement activities. State funding <a href="https://www.asdwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/SRNAP-Analysis.pdf">declined by 26%</a> from 2001 to 2011, while workloads have increased due to new rules.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YBnwlIjRVn4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Procedures for sampling household water for lead and copper.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Controlling corrosion and replacing pipes</h2>
<p>Water system managers must inform the public when they find elevated lead levels. They may need to reduce pipe corrosion or replace service lines made of lead. </p>
<p>Water treatments to adjust pH and lessen corrosion can be effective in reducing exposure to lead. They are required in cities of more than 50,000 and in smaller systems with violations. Flint’s system lacked proper corrosion control, which would have cost only about <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/06/25/623126968/pediatrician-who-exposed-flint-water-crisis-shares-her-story-of-resistance">US$100 per day</a>.</p>
<p>Replacing lead pipes nationwide, which would permanently solve the corrosion problem, would cost <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-10/documents/508_lcr_revisions_white_paper_final_10.26.16.pdf">$16 billion to $80 billion</a>. Utilities that cannot reduce lead levels through corrosion control are legally required to replace pipes at a rate of 7% yearly. However, they only have to pay for replacing pipes they own. Many homeowners decline to pay for their portion, which can cost between $1,000 and $12,000. </p>
<p>Partial replacements can worsen conditions by disrupting pipelines and dislodging lead. Nonetheless, some cities have launched replacement programs. Others, including Detroit, Denver and Newark, have taken steps to identify and inventory lead pipes in their service areas. </p>
<h2>Stricter rules</h2>
<p>Revised federal and state guidelines could limit oversampling by utilities and improve water testing in people’s houses. New regulations could prohibit the practice of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/02/lead-water-testing-cheats-chicago-boston-philadelphia">pre-flushing</a>,” or running water for several minutes before drawing a sample, which some engineers use to <a href="https://www.michiganradio.org/post/states-instructions-sampling-drinking-water-lead-not-best-practice">clear lead from pipes</a> prior to testing. Another strategy would be for regional EPA offices to conduct random sampling of tap water quality.</p>
<p>The EPA currently is considering <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dwstandardsregulations/lead-and-copper-rule-long-term-revisions">long-term revisions</a> to the Lead and Copper Rule. In our view, an updated rule should require corrosion control, identification and replacement of lead lines, specific sampling procedures and better public education. </p>
<p>We believe that lead contamination can be eliminated through better enforcement, more funding for state agencies, stricter sampling and proactive efforts to control corrosion. These actions will pay off by improving children’s health nationwide.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maura C. Allaire serves as a research network expert for the Public Policy Institute of California's Water Policy Center.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Qi Bing does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Newark is the latest US city to struggle with high lead levels in drinking water. Ending this public health crisis will require more money and enforcement, plus stricter water testing standards.Qi Bing, Ph.D. Student in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy, University of California, IrvineMaura C. Allaire, Assistant Professor of Water Economics and Policy, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1160362019-07-10T12:08:59Z2019-07-10T12:08:59ZAt least 2% of US public water systems are like Flint’s – Americans just don’t hear about them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281028/original/file-20190624-97789-1rs0qbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is your community's water tainted with lead? The data might not have been reported.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/flint-michigan-water-crisis-tower-seen-765024070?src=3rWCdiY5CWd4PeMySxx3bA-1-7&studio=1">ehrlif/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than five years after Flint’s water crisis first hit the news, the city has successfully lowered the lead levels in its water.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.michigan.gov/flintwater/">The most recently available testing</a>, from the second half of 2018, puts the lead in Flint’s water at 4 parts per billion. That’s well below the level, 15 ppb, that the federal government currently regards as dangerous for public health. </p>
<p>No amount of lead in water is safe, but the lower level in Flint represents a substantial improvement over the 27 ppb <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b00791">reported by the Virgina Tech Water Study at the peak of the crisis</a> in April 2015. </p>
<p>However, even Flint’s highest levels were not atypical for water systems that have problems. Most reports of elevated lead levels cluster in the range between 15 and 20 ppb. </p>
<p><iframe id="o7Md2" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/o7Md2/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Where lead problems occur</h2>
<p><a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=60001N8P.txt">The federal Lead and Copper Rule</a> requires public water utilities to sample home tap water yearly in neighborhoods most likely to face contamination. </p>
<p>If more than 10% of samples exceed 15 parts per billion of lead, the rule states that the water system must take steps to control pipe corrosion – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2010.10.003">the main source of lead in residential tap water</a> – as well as to inform the public and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.</p>
<p>Water systems, especially in rural areas, can report much higher levels than the EPA cutoff. In 2017, for example, an elementary school in Tulare County, California, home to agricultural laborers, reported lead levels of 4,600 ppb. <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article66712562.html">The school distributed bottled water</a> to its students and replaced its well. The same year, a senior living center in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, had lead levels of 3,428 ppb. Such drinking water is truly poisonous, especially for children. </p>
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<p>Large urban water systems tend to have <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-424">lower contaminant levels</a> than systems in rural areas, including for lead, because they have expert staff to run facilities. But when contamination occurs in urban systems, it affects more people. Flint’s water system serves 71,500 people and its woes drew the attention of the Obama administration. In 2004, when Washington, D.C. had similar lead levels, Congress intervened to demand a rapid fix.</p>
<p>Right now, <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-04-09/newark-nj-has-lead-contamination-problem-its-water">Newark, New Jersey</a> – an area that <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hmaz4yoAAAAJ&hl=en">I have studied</a> for more than 10 years – is in the hot seat for lead, but has not drawn similar attention. In June the city reported to the EPA lead samples more than 2.5 times higher than that of Flint at the peak of the crisis, the highest level in a two-year running problem. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/newark-begins-corrosion-control-to-reduce-lead-in-drinking-water/">The Pequannock facility</a>, one of Newark’s two water treatment plants and the source of the issue, distributes water to the city and several surrounding communities. The Newark Water Department serves a total of more than 290,000 people. </p>
<p>Of cities with more than 100,000 in population reporting issues since the beginning of 2017, nearest in rank to Newark in terms of levels of lead is Pittsburgh; then Trenton, New Jersey; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Suez Water, headquartered in Hackensack, New Jersey, serving multiple communities; Portland, Oregon; Providence, Rhode Island; and Green Bay, Wisconsin. </p>
<p>Most cities reporting issues are in New England and the Middle Atlantic States, where older housing is more likely to have lead pipes that run from the water main into the home.</p>
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<h2>Shining a light on the problem: Missing data</h2>
<p>What’s more, an undetermined number of water systems with lead problems in their water do not report heightened lead levels to the federal government, in violation of the law.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-424">investigative report commissioned by Congress</a>, publicly released in October 2017, showed that about 2% of public water systems across the country exceeded the federal limit on lead between 2014 and 2016. </p>
<p>The report says that the number of water systems that do not report their problems at all is understated – in some cases badly so. Flint itself initially failed to report its elevated lead levels to the EPA. The <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-424">congressional report</a>, compiled by the Government Accountability Office, found a host of problems on this score, concluding that “data available from the EPA likely understate the number of sample results, violations and enforcement actions.” </p>
<p>As of December 2016, the end date of the GAO investigation, only about 47% of states had reported as required on their corrosion control methods, the primary way a lead problem is addressed. </p>
<p>The report recommended that the EPA require states to report data for small water systems, those most likely to fail to report, but the EPA folded this initiative into <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dwstandardsregulations/lead-and-copper-rule-long-term-revisions">a revision of the Lead and Copper Rule</a> that has not happened.</p>
<p>Without better data collection on lead contamination, Americans will never know how bad the problem really is in their communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116036/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Pangallozzi is a member of the Rahway River Watershed Association, a watershed association in northern New Jersey that seeks to improve water quality and the riparian environment in the region.</span></em></p>Flint’s highest recorded lead levels were typical for water systems that report problems. What’s more, a number of cities haven’t reported their lead issues.Laura Pangallozzi, Visiting Assistant Professor of Geography, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1165062019-06-27T17:54:59Z2019-06-27T17:54:59ZWhy lead is dangerous, and the damage it does<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281212/original/file-20190625-81770-1xsoxow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two house painters in hazmat suits remove lead paint from an old house. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-house-painters-hazmat-suits-removing-458202448?src=vvQkBkUCuohuBPZHOVUaUA-1-5&studio=1">Jamie Hooper/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Everything is a toxin, or has the potential to be, in the field of toxicology. In the 1500s, Swiss physician <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/bcpt.12622">Paracelsus, the father of toxicology</a>, coined his famous dictum: “What is there that is not poison? All things are poison and nothing is without poison. Solely the dose determines that a thing is not a poison.” </p>
<p>Lead, however, is toxic at any dose. <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health">It serves no purpose in our body</a>. Unlike most other toxins that our body can eliminate through metabolism and excretion, our body has <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=92&tid=22">no ability to purge lead</a>. </p>
<p>As a clinical toxicologist, I care for children and adults who have been exposed to lead and assure that those individuals receive the best possible care. Lead can enter the body through a number of different routes, depending on the source of the element. Most commonly, it enters the body through ingestion or inhalation. </p>
<p>As an example, toddlers are constantly placing items, including their hands, in their mouths. If a toddler lives in an old home that was previously painted with leaded paint – which was <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-84/pdf/STATUTE-84-Pg2078.pdf">banned in the United States in 1978 for use in homes</a> – the child may ingest old lead paint chips or lead contaminated dust from their hands on a daily basis resulting in gastrointestinal absorption of lead. This is by far one of the most common causes for elevated blood lead level that I see in my clinic. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I have evaluated adults in our clinic who had elevated blood lead levels after inhaling lead vapor following heating of lead in poorly ventilated areas. A couple of those cases included a hobbyist who made his own lead musket balls in his basement for Revolutionary War and Civil War reenactments and a military marksmen who was practicing target shooting with lead ammo. One of my patients who was pregnant was using a heat gun to strip lead paint in an old home and developed markedly elevated blood lead levels via inhalation, placing her fetus at risk since lead crosses the placenta. </p>
<h2>Clinical effects of lead</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281218/original/file-20190625-81750-pi8g8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281218/original/file-20190625-81750-pi8g8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281218/original/file-20190625-81750-pi8g8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281218/original/file-20190625-81750-pi8g8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281218/original/file-20190625-81750-pi8g8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281218/original/file-20190625-81750-pi8g8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281218/original/file-20190625-81750-pi8g8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281218/original/file-20190625-81750-pi8g8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The people in areas of Flint, Michigan, were exposed to high levels of lead through the water supply.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/ypsilanti-miusa-jan-27-2016-sign-368463005?src=vvQkBkUCuohuBPZHOVUaUA-1-8&studio=1">Barbara Kalbfleisch/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>The clinical effects from lead toxicity are potentially subtle and may be slow to emerge and may not be noticed initially. The timing of symptoms is based on the dose taken into the body and the time over which lead enters the body. A child who ingests a lead fishing sinker that is retained in the stomach may have a rapid rise in blood lead levels and become symptomatic over days with nausea, vomiting, confusion, and sedation. On the other hand, a child exposed to ingested dust contaminating the hands daily may develop few and subtle symptoms that take years to manifest, if at all. </p>
<p>Once lead enters the body, it first flows through the blood stream where it slowly crosses into various organs such as the kidneys, muscles and brain. Lead is bad for humans because it interferes with numerous enzymes inside the cells of these organs. This results in symptoms such as muscle and joint aches as well as constipation and overall fatigue. It damages our brains by interfering with how brain cells send messages and communicate. Lead decreases fertility in both males and females. It harms our kidneys and can result in <a href="https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/hypertension">hypertension</a> later in life. Lead prevents our bodies from creating hemoglobin – the molecule that carries oxygen in our red blood cells – resulting in <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/iron-deficiency-anemia">anemia</a>. </p>
<p>Rather than being eliminated, much of the lead we absorb into our bodies becomes deposited in bones and stays with us for the rest of our lives. From those tissues and the blood, lead will eventually enter the bone where it is deposited and remains for the lifetime of most individuals. That is why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has clearly stated that “<a href="https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showChildhoodLeadPoisoning">no safe blood lead level in children has been identified</a>.” </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281216/original/file-20190625-81776-np2kee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281216/original/file-20190625-81776-np2kee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281216/original/file-20190625-81776-np2kee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281216/original/file-20190625-81776-np2kee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281216/original/file-20190625-81776-np2kee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281216/original/file-20190625-81776-np2kee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281216/original/file-20190625-81776-np2kee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Chelation therapy uses ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid to remove lead, mercury, iron and arsenic from the blood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/chelation-therapy-lead-mercury-iron-acid-1341184721?studio=1">rumruay/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Lead in the brain</h2>
<p>Lead is a dangerous toxin for people of all ages. But it is especially dangerous for young children. In young developing brains it alters brain development and changes the architecture, ultimately causing learning problems and lower IQs. In the brain lead interferes with with the release of signaling molecules called neurotransmitters, it inhibits function of a receptor (N-methyl-D-aspartate-type glutamate receptor) vital for memory and forming new neural connections, and raises the levels of a messenger molecule called protein kinase C. Taken together, these effects diminish the the number of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9870138">synaptic connections during a critical early period</a> of postnatal development. </p>
<p>There are numerous treatments, such as a process called chelation which helps to eliminate lead from the body when an individual has been poisoned. Chelation is used when blood lead levels are above a specific critical threshold where such treatments might benefit. However, the first goal is to assure our population does not become exposed to toxins, especially lead. </p>
<p>Entities, such as the CDC, the <a href="https://www.osha.com">Occupational Safety and Health Administration</a> and local state health departments work to decrease adult and child lead exposure. Public health initiatives over the past few decades in the U.S. have been successful in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002934316306003">lowering our public’s blood lead levels</a>. Such public health preventative work to decrease lead exposure will reduce future adverse health outcomes in subsequent generations.</p>
<p>If you have questions about lead, view information at reliable sites, such <a href="http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/leadsafe/">your state health department</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/">the CDC</a> and <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/tp.asp?id=96&tid=22">the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry</a>. </p>
<p>The U.S. poison centers can also help to answer questions regarding lead poisoning, day or night (1-800-222-1222).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher P. Holstege does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Flint water crisis made the country aware of the dangers of lead. But why, exactly, is this element so toxic and what does it do to the body?Christopher P. Holstege, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.