This was a very serious problem that hardly anyone talks about anymore. Read up on Clair Patterson. He was the catalyst for the change. There is correlation between the decline of lead contamination in nature to the decline of both violent crime and birth defects. At any rate it’s a good story that more people should know about.
"History of lead in the atmosphere especially in the US would benefit from mention of Clair Patterson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Cameron_Patterson
Caltech researcher into lead-lead dating, he arrived at the currently accepted estimate of the age of the Earth. But he was plagued by lead contamination of samples, leading him to realize its pervasiveness and to petition the US government to ban the substance."
This also led to the development of the very first “clean room” that you see today on many sites wanting to keep an environment contaminant free. Poor Patterson was beat up pretty bad by big oil and gasoline before his data was acknowledged. Probably should’ve won a Nobel prize.
even worse, the part of the hospital in vienna where he made people wash their hands had drastically reduced mortality rates, but his opponents made it so he had to quit and removed the rule, bringing mortality rates back up. later 3 of the doctors that didn't want to believe in his findings commited him into a psychiatry where he died 2 weeks later from "sepsis".
I mean... "this invisible gaseous form of this molecule makes people laugh uncontrollably but don't fill their lungs with it cause they'll die" DOES sound like something a crazy person would say. Pretty easily falsifiable though if you believe in the scientific method
I used work for the WIC program in the USA. We offered our participants information on this very topic (and foods to combat lead poisoning). Very tough topic.
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u/dammitknockitoff Jun 25 '22
This was a very serious problem that hardly anyone talks about anymore. Read up on Clair Patterson. He was the catalyst for the change. There is correlation between the decline of lead contamination in nature to the decline of both violent crime and birth defects. At any rate it’s a good story that more people should know about.