“The Effects of Low-Level Lead Exposure in Adults”
“Children in approximately 4 million households in the United States
are being exposed to high levels of lead.”
“Despite the dramatic decline in children’s blood lead concentrations over the decades,
lead toxicity remains a major public health problem.”
And, not just for children.
Yes, lead is a devastating neurotoxin,
starting with learning disabilities and attention deficits in children
starting around blood lead levels of 10 micrograms per deciliter,
which is when you start seeing
high blood pressure and nerve damage in adults.
But, the blood levels in American adults these days
are down around 1, not 10,
unless you work or play in an indoor firing range,
where the lead levels in the air are so high
more than half of recreational target shooters have levels over 10 or even 25.
In fact, even open-air outdoor ranges can be a problem.
Spending just 2 days a month at a range
may quadruple blood lead levels up into the danger zone.
But what if you don’t use firearms
or live in a house with someone who uses firearms?
The lead levels can be so high the CDC advises
those who go to shooting ranges shower there,
change into clean clothes, don’t mix clean clothes with contaminated clothes,
don’t bring your shoes home, etc.
Even if none of that applies, and your blood levels are under 10,
there is still some evidence of increased risk of hand tremors,
and high blood pressure, kidney damage, and other issues.
But come on, just 1?
What if you’re down around a blood level of 1, like most people?
We didn’t know…
until this study, which found that blood lead levels
even in the range currently considered acceptable
are associated with an increased prevalence of the painful arthritis known as gout.
They found blood levels as low as approximately 1.2
can be associated with increased prevalence of gout,
which is close to the current American average.
So, this means “very low” levels of lead may still be associated
with health risks, suggesting
“that there is no such thing as a ‘safe’ level of exposure to lead.”
OK, but where is the lead coming from?
Lead only circulates in your body for about a month;
so, if you have lead in your bloodstream, it’s some ongoing exposure.
But, most adults don’t eat peeling paint chips,
and there’s no more leaded gas on the road.
I mean, there are specific foods, supplements, and cosmetics
that are contaminated with lead,
and I have videos coming up on all those topics,
but for most adults, the source of ongoing lead exposure
is from our own skeleton.
Remember how I said lead only lasts around about a month?
Well, where does it go?
It can get deposited in our bones.
“More than 90% of the total body lead content resides in the bone,
where the half-life is not a month but can be decades long.”
So, half or more of the lead in our blood represents
lead from past exposures just now leaching out of our bones
back into our bloodstream.
And it is this “gradual release of lead from the bone that can serve as
as a persistent source of toxicity,”
long after leaded gasoline was removed from the pumps
for those of us that who were around back before the 80s.
So, the answer to where is the lead coming from is like Pogo’s,
“We’ve met the enemy and he is us.”
Or like that horror movie - the call is coming from inside the house.
The amount of lead in your bones can actually be measured,
and higher levels are associated with some
of our leading causes of death and disability,
from tooth decay and miscarriages to cognitive decline and cataracts.
“Much of the lead found in adults today was deposited decades ago.”
Thus, regulations enacted in the 1970s
may have been too late for many of us,
but at least things are going in the right direction now.
The dramatic societal decreases in blood lead in the U.S. since the 1970s
have been associated with a 4- to 5-point increase
in the average IQs of American adults.
“A particularly provocative question then is whether the whole country suffered
brain damage prior to the 1980 decreases in blood lead.
Was ‘the best generation’ really the brain damaged generation?'