Lead is a heavy metal that is common in our everyday environment. Historically it has been used in paints, pipes (including connectors/fittings), and gasoline among other places. Today, most industrial uses are limited to lead-acid batteries, a growing market. Lead is a known toxin for humans. Health effects range from mild health irritations and decreased fertility at low amounts, lower IQ and emotional/behavioral issues in milder amounts, and seizures, coma, and even death at higher amounts. ### Top exposure pathways (aka: sources of lead) include: - Paint - Soil - Dust (created by soil, paint, or emissions) - Water / Plumbing Lead may also be in toys, cosmetics, food containers, and other places, but the above are the top 4 pathways. Paint is generally recognized as the predominant source of lead. People talk quite a bit about lead in water, in part because of the crisis in Flint Michigan. Soil is a pathway that gets less attention; however, there is growing evidence that soil -- and in particular the dust that gets kicked up -- is a significant source of lead. There are no safe levels of lead for humans; any amount is a bad amount. Lead is also bioaccumulate which means that it doesn't leave your body. Small amounts add up in your body over time. -------------------- ###Top Resources on PublicLab.org Related to this Topic - [How to Test For Lead in your Environment](https://publiclab.org/notes/read_holman/04-11-2019/how-to-test-for-lead-in-your-environment) - [Evaluating Low-cost Lead Screening Products](https://publiclab.org/notes/read_holman/04-16-2019/evaluating-low-cost-lead-screening-products) - [Chemical/Analytical Methods Used When Testing for Lead](https://publiclab.org/notes/read_holman/12-12-2018/list-of-methods-for-lead-detection-monitoring) - [How much lead is legally allowed and what government agency regulates that? (link goes to CDC/ATSDR website. Scroll to Summary Table.)](https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=34&po=8) -------------------- ### Research Notes on PublicLab.org Related to this Topic [notes:lead!question:lead] ### Questions posted on PublicLab.org Related to this Topic [questions:lead] ...
| Author | Comment | Last activity | Moderation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| eustatic | "Mat, you're not kidding. danke. Stevie, do you know Howard? Would Howard know how to get this information? S " | Read more » | about 10 years ago | |||
| stevie | "Interesting. Did you go to the meeting? Did you happen to hear what air monitor it is? " | Read more » | about 10 years ago | |||
| geraldmc | "On Monday last week (06/23) the Concerned Citizens of Cherokee in Pascagoula held a meeting where Howard Page (of the Steps Coalition) Wes Smith (p..." | Read more » | about 10 years ago | |||
| mathew | "I would go after a test from the dept. of ag in maine. the university of maine has a great how-to. Lead is a standard on the test but I'll bet th..." | Read more » | about 10 years ago | |||
| donblair | "Great note! I'm just going to paste in some of the comments from our email thread here, for reference: "Note in this photo comparison the expansi..." | Read more » | about 10 years ago | |||
| eustatic | "Get her a lawyer. Work on a nuisance claim. Document any health symptoms that could be related to the bad air. Look for an document corrosion in..." | Read more » | about 10 years ago | |||
| stevie | "Yeah I got those numbers off the TRI page if you go to the main TRI page (http://www2.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program), search the zip..." | Read more » | about 10 years ago | |||
| mathew | "12 Cease and Desist orders make a mockery of the words "cease and desist." here's the TRI report for Jackson County " | Read more » | about 10 years ago | |||
| warren | "That's a lot of ammonia, sulfuric acid and lead - yikes. Where did you find those numbers? Do you have a link? " | Read more » | about 10 years ago | |||
| mrericsully | "The sodium rhodizonat isn't toxic according to the SDS I just looked at. The cost of the chemical itself might be a little prohibitive, but search..." | Read more » | over 10 years ago | |||
| warren | "Wow, mrericsully - interesting. Is sodium rhodizonate toxic itself? Could any be obtained easily and safely to make such strips ourselves? I also ..." | Read more » | over 10 years ago | |||
| donblair | "I wonder how reliable these test strips are for lead; I've heard that some of the less expensive colorimetric techniques like this are pretty unrel..." | Read more » | over 10 years ago | |||
| mrericsully | "It is possible to recreate. This particular kit looks like it uses sodium rhodizonate. However all that is necessary is something that reacts wit..." | Read more » | over 10 years ago |