Lead is still present in drinking water in many communities, where it can leach from lead pipes in homes, apartment buildings and municipal water system, or from brass fittings or solder used in plumbing. Another 25,000 to 30,000 tons of lead enters the U.S. environment each year from hunting and shooting-range ammunition, fishing-line weights, discarded batteries and electronic waste, said Mark Pokras at Tufts University.
Coal-burning power plants in developed nations also generate some lead in emissions and more so in ash, and the steep rise in coal power in China has boosted levels worldwide because regulations are more lax. Larger lead particles fall to the ground within about 200 meters of the source (including tailpipes, by the way), but the smaller particles, about 0.5 micron in size, can remain airborne for a week before they settle out. According to Flegal, lead particles from China have been found in rainfall in Santa Cruz, Calif.
Many steps can be taken nationwide to further reduce lead levels. Tougher emissions laws can be imposed. Lead paint, still sold in China, for example, can be banned in that country, or for import by other countries. Lead pipes and old lead paint can be removed. A high tax could be imposed on products containing lead, and lead in ammunition and fishing weights could be replaced with substitutes—although materials such as tungsten have not performed well in bullets. A different view about prevention is needed, too. For years, U.S. regulators have focused primarily on reducing lead poisoning, and they have succeeded. “So now we have to stop thinking about the problem as a small number of people who have an acute exposure, and start thinking about the problem as a large number of people who have a chronic exposure,” Schwartz said.
Cost analyses might help push regulators into action, Reyes said. “Perhaps we will find that an X-amount of reduction in lead exposure equates with an X-amount of rise in test scores” [which has been shown in Massachusetts], she said. “Or perhaps we will find that a certain amount of reduction equates with a certain reduction in health-care costs.”
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19 Comments
Add CommentAnd then of course there is also all that ammo people are hoarding.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would think hoarding ammo is fairly benign in terms of toxicity - at least it's not getting out into the environment that way. But this obviously depends on the future use of the stuff by the hoarder - he/she may use it to cause some very sudden and serious "lead poisoning", or may use it in a more traditional manner which over time will put it out in the environment. But even in the latter case, it doesn't seem like it would be a significant factor regarding the issue of toxicity.It seems that the toxicity issues involve breathing airborne particles and/or ingestion of dissolved particles, neither of which seems likely to occur from stored or expended bullets.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd I do realize that the comment by Cosmic had a different implication than just toxicity - a point which I appreciate as well.
I wonder how many thousands of tons of lead were released into the environment following the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, by Oil & Gas fires, the Chiba Oil Refinery conflagration, automobiles, batteries, buildings burning and piles of debris were burnt in huge bonfires releasing lead, asbestos and other deadly substances into the air, sea and water. Funny how the mainstream media has been completely silent on these environmentally destructive effects, instead a total focus on the comparatively minor radioisotope releases from the Fukushima incident.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe'll all die of catastrophic climate change long before all toxic contaminants could ever be removed from the environment. Sorry, the industrial revolution can't be undone and we can't all become Paleolithic peoples.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre you claiming that forest fires are positively correlated with global warming? From what I understood, forest fires used to rage out of control from lightning strikes before we created our cities. Now, we fight them; we even do controlled burns. That is unnatural. The link in that section of text did not even operate as a citation to reinforce the claim.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne thing the article fails to point out is that lead in large concentrations is fairly innocuous.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's when it's aerosolized into very fine particles that it becomes a problem.
The example of fishing weights is wrong, since they are large chunks of metal, not particles. The same is true for bullets fired when hunting.
Bullets fired at a range against steel targets may create some small particles, but they are extremely localized and never leave the target area of the range.
I would also be curious as to what percentage of the 30,000 tons per year ammunition and fishing weights actually make up.
Compared to enormous sources like used batteries and electronic waste they have to be a literal drop in the bucket.
Is this SciAm trying to drum-up a gun control agenda? I really hope not, especially on such flimsy data.
Then here's the citation for you:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Forest fire frequency and intensity have increased markedly since 1970. The 10-year average of boreal forest burned in North America, after several decades of around 2.5 million acres, has increased steadily since 1970 to more than 7 million acres annually."
http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/nacc/education/alaska/ak-edu-5.htm
Appreciate it! Relevant information is necessary to give a greater understanding of the whole picture. It seems even pests and disease will become a greater problem, but only in those formerly cold areas in that resource. Every where else will suffer as they always have.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article misses the point!! Scientific what??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisToxicologists have known for years that flouride, still being added to 65% of municipal US drinking water due to an errant US Govt Policy, doesn't help tooth decay. However, this toxin tends to cause the human body to absorb more lead (often found in solder used for water piping). Please don't take my word on this. Find the documentary "Flouridation" and see for yourself!
Please keep your paranoid and silly nonsense confined to your John Birch Society meetings, please!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe government makes no errors wrt toxins . It is deliberate .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"sault:" Please wake up and get current on this relevant issue of artificial water floridation. A good start would be to check out this menu of science-based videos exposing this highly dubious hazmat water-dumping practice at:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.fluoridealert.org/fan-tv/prof-perspectives/
Repeating: Please see videos on the dangerous practice of fluoridation at:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.fluoridealert.org/fan-tv/prof-perspectives/
Hunters who use lead bullets (and others who eat the meat they bring home) have higher blood lead levels than hunters who use non-lead ammo.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOops, the documentary film is named "Flouridegate" and the directors interviewed retired govt. toxicologists, among others. Yes, flouride currently being added to US water supplies is a waste by-product from the chemical fertilizer industry in Mexico, China and other point east. It is a known neurotoxin, lowers IQ in developing brains, and tends to effect the youngest (smallest) members of society the most. Also known to suck lead into the human body, as commented earlier.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOnce govt. policies are in place, difficult to disband due to possible serious legal repercussions. By the mid-90s, adding flouride to water supplies was regarded as being based on junk science, the allowable ppm level in water had been "adjusted" to suit a policy, not human health. Hopefully these tidbits are enough to start your own research...
Lead wheel weights have been used on vehicles in the United States since the 1930s. Some are recycled, some are collected and melted down to make bullets and sinkers. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that each year 2,000 metric tons of lead in wheel weights is lost on US highways. The fate of these lost lead wheel weights in cities is a potential continuous source of lead contamination to urban areas and small towns. Lead wheel weights lost on roadways are abraded and broken by traffic. Dust and particles from the abraded lead can be flung onto urban soils or washed into streams.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSee: Root, Robert A., 2000, Lead loading of urban streets by motor vehicle wheel weights. Environmental Health Perspectives, 108, 937-940.)
Hollabaugh, Curtis L., 2013, The effect of steady state deposition of lead wheel weights on lead distribution in the environment. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 45.
Roger Masters from Dartmouth has posited the theory that drinking milk helps reduce blood led levels. He then suggests that populations who are unable to drink milk, because they had no cows in their countries of origin are unable to digest milk, and as a result have far higher blood led levels, with resulting higher incidence of cognitive deficits (and lower so-called "IQ"), and possibly ADHD. An interesting and testable theory.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Hunters who use lead bullets (and others who eat the meat they bring home) have higher blood lead levels than hunters who use non-lead ammo."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSources? Or is this your personal theory?
AVGas is currently .18% of all gasoline produced. To blame the lead in avgas is misleading. While I understand that it isn't lead free, the amount placed into the environment through other means is far more damaging. AVGas is currently used on light aircraft that do not fly near as much as their bigger breathern.
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