Article about lead.

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I was listening to a report about this on R-4 this morning.

There seems to be some provenance in it, but it would be interesting to see the geography of the high risk areas as well.
 
They are a bit behind the curve on this one.
There was a case in the UK in the 80s or 90s where a young woman working as a nanny was charged with murder after shaking a baby so violently it died. She had been brought up next to a facility used in manufacturing the lead additives then used in fuel. There was talk that she had been exposed to lead and it affected her behaviour.
I think that was the gist of it and I think it was in the Merseyside area IIRC.
(Was her surname Woodword or similar?)
 
They are a bit behind the curve on this one.
There was a case in the UK in the 80s or 90s where a young woman working as a nanny was charged with murder after shaking a baby so violently it died. She had been brought up next to a facility used in manufacturing the lead additives then used in fuel. There was talk that she had been exposed to lead and it affected her behaviour.
I think that was the gist of it and I think it was in the Merseyside area IIRC.
(Was her surname Woodword or similar?)

I remember the case, didn't remember about the lead issue.
 
I remember the case, didn't remember about the lead issue.

It was quite a while ago, but definitely I remember the lead issue being discussed, possibly just in the media rather than as part of the defence.
I'm near certain she was brought up next to tetraethyl lead plant somewhere around Liverpool.
 
No, seriously I was thinking of them handling lead and then eating & smoking without washing their hands.
 
No, seriously I was thinking of them handling lead and then eating & smoking without washing their hands.

Lead is a neurological poison which stunts brain growth.

...probably a bit late for adult plumbers.
 
Should we be saying 'Mad as a plumber' then?
 
Perhaps they weren't eating it as they grew up. ;)

This is what they had us doing on day one of my apprenticeship, and i haven't turned crazy yet. :D
 
No, seriously I was thinking of them handling lead and then eating & smoking without washing their hands.

High concentrations of lead in Roman human remains have been attributed to its use in their plumbing systems and cooking utensils and its effects are thought by some to have contributed to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

In Elizabethan and Georgian times the lead used in makeup is also thought to have caused madness. Most recently it has been suggested (on internet, so must be true) that Bin Laden overdid his leaded makeup.
 
High concentrations of lead in Roman human remains have been attributed to its use in their plumbing systems and cooking utensils and its effects are thought by some to have contributed to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

Loads of theories on the decline and fall from corruption to malaria, to germanic tribes and lead poisoning, perhaps a composite whole, all contributing. Or even that the roman empire didn't collapse at all just changed its form into a religion and the religion continued to extract money in a more efficient way without the need for an army, physical oppression replaced by a much more subtle ideological one:)
 
We used to have hundreds of miles of lead water pipe didn't we...
 
To the best of my knowledge, we still do have hundreds of miles of lead piping, maybe not mains, but lots of bits of lead services left over - since the water companies stopped the policy of free replacement of lead pipes...
 
Isn't there a danger of correlation being confused with causality here?

An interesting theory, nevertheless.
 
Any lead piping still in existance has plastic inner-piping.
 
What about all the people that mine, refine and work with lead? They get massive levels much more than any member of the public would get in a lifetime but are regularly monitored, never met any violent criminals when I've been working in lead mines and smelters. True lead is a nuerotoxin and there is no safe threshold level for lead in the body but elevated levels are normally classed as such at around 25um/dl Interesting the report does not mention any levels.

I suspect the reduction in violent crime since the 70's and 80's is more down to better trained and armed police and the use of tasers :D
 

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