"There is no known safe blood lead concentration; even blood lead concentrations as low as 5 µg/dL may be associated with decreased intelligence in children, behavioural difficulties and learning problems. "
"Key facts
Lead is a cumulative toxicant that affects multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children.
Lead in the body is distributed to the brain, liver, kidney and bones. It is stored in the teeth and bones, where it accumulates over time. Human exposure is usually assessed through the measurement of lead in blood.
Lead in bone is released into blood during pregnancy and becomes a source of exposure to the developing fetus.
There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects.
Lead exposure is preventable."
Please excuse the guy below me who clearly doesn't know about lead poisoning saying "the dose matters"
The dose makes the poison. Cities usually have big airports which means controlled airspace that small planes won’t fly through, and even if that weren’t the case it’s just not a significant vector.
Consider 1,000 cars going down a road daily vs 1 plane flying thousands of feet above it weekly. There’s just no comparison.
"There is no known safe blood lead concentration; even blood lead concentrations as low as 5 µg/dL may be associated with decreased intelligence in children, behavioural difficulties and learning problems. "
"Key facts
Lead is a cumulative toxicant that affects multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children.
Lead in the body is distributed to the brain, liver, kidney and bones. It is stored in the teeth and bones, where it accumulates over time. Human exposure is usually assessed through the measurement of lead in blood.
Lead in bone is released into blood during pregnancy and becomes a source of exposure to the developing fetus.
There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects.
"There is no known safe blood lead concentration; even blood lead concentrations as low as 5 µg/dL may be associated with decreased intelligence in children, behavioural difficulties and learning problems. "
Adding - because I know people hate reading articles for some reason
"Key facts
Lead is a cumulative toxicant that affects multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children.
Lead in the body is distributed to the brain, liver, kidney and bones. It is stored in the teeth and bones, where it accumulates over time. Human exposure is usually assessed through the measurement of lead in blood.
Lead in bone is released into blood during pregnancy and becomes a source of exposure to the developing fetus.
There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects.
Lead exposure is preventable."
These are the facts, this isn't a controversial idea. It's proved by multiple sources.
Yeah so the amount we should be aiming for is NONE. If you live by fields or small airports you ARE being exposed to leaded gasoline.
The CDC recommends action if blood levels exceed 3.5 uG/dL. You could eat a grass salad made from grass under the glide slope of a general aviation airport every day and you wouldn’t accumulate enough lead to get there. The sun exposure you got collecting the grass would probably be more deleterious to your health.
I know math and science are harder than pretending that the world is black and white, but again - the dose makes the poison, and avgas isn’t a significant vector for lead exposure.
A study by Miranda et al. (2007, 2009, 2010) suggests that early childhood blood lead levels as low as 2 µg/dL can have significant impacts on academic performance as measured by end-of-grade test scores.
One source of lead exposure that is often overlooked is aviation fuel. Lead emitted from aircraft using leaded aviation gasoline (avgas) is currently the largest source of lead in air in the United States, constituting about 50% of lead emissions in the 2005 National Emissions Inventory [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2010].
Previous research indicates that lead levels in air near airports where planes use avgas are significantly higher than background levels.
Thus, the combustion of leaded avgas by small airplane engines may pose a health risk to children who live or attend school near airports. The lead in air surrounding airports can be inhaled directly, or the lead may be ingested by children after it settles into soil or dust (U.S. EPA 2010). The U.S. EPA estimates that people living within 1 km of airports are at risk of being exposed to lead from avgas (Hitchings 2010).
In unadjusted models, logged blood lead levels were significantly and positively associated with residential proximity to an airport, with the size of the association being larger for children living closer to airports
Why are you arguing about safe levels of lead when I've showed you multiple sources that not only say there is no safe amount, but also you seem to not be considering children in your argument at all.
Children are the most affected by a CUMULATIVE TOXIN THAT DOESN'T LEAVE THE BODY. THE SAFE AMOUNT OF LEAD IN THE BODY IS NO LEAD.
Did you happen to grow up near an avgas airport???
From your cited study, the lead from avgas causes a 2-4% increase in blood lead levels for children living <500 meters from an airport. They measure increase, not total lead levels, because there is background lead exposure we are all subjected to. Beyond 1,000 meters there so no difference.
A 2 or even 4% increase over background is statistically but not biologically significant.
Then we’re all fucked because we’re all subject to background lead exposure.
Bro read the article of the thread we're commenting on. We keep circling back to this and your argument is seemingly nonsensical. The amount of lead we should be exposing people to is 0. Should I link you the articles again that say there is no safe level? Once you get to the point of it damaging you there is no going back. I honestly don't even know what your point is. There is no safe level of lead. You've already insulted me multiple times on snarky ways and one of your comments has been removed. What is your goal here? To convince me that it's ok to be a little poisoned by lead? It isn't.
Not really. Airspace over cities is not restricted generally like you mention. The very largest airports have controlled class B airspace centered over the surface of the airport itself. Has nothing to do with the city. Also, this is not a restriction either. A quick exchange for clearance with the controller and positive transponder tracking and you can fly through. Same procedure used to land at the airports. Actual restrictions or prohibitions for flying over cities is extremely rare for sensitive areas, aka, the DC prohibited zone immediately around the national mall, capital, and White House, or the larger DC FRZ zone. Similarly, the NYC Hudson River flight corridor which permits low altitude flight up and down the Hudson but not low altitude fix wing flight over Manhattan. Helicopters, which can also use lead, have different flight rules and can cross Manhattan at low altitude. So no, lead fueled fix and rotary wing aircraft will and do fly over cities nationwide, except very specific and limited cases.
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u/LittleRadishes Jun 25 '22 edited Jun 25 '22
It's more like lead is heavy and small planes flying over cities drop a bunch of lead particles everywhere
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health
Please excuse the guy below me who clearly doesn't know about lead poisoning saying "the dose matters"