On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:40:57 GMT, "Arfa Daily"
[...]
You are correct that it is all relative, but unfortunately, the responses
are not relative pro rata, which was my point. No one would disagree that
if
you get lead into your body in sufficient quantity, it's not gonna do you
a
lot of good. The point is that it is actually quite difficult to get lead
into your body in sufficient quantity to do damage. Lead in gasoline was a
good way. Lead in solder or CRT glass faceplates, is not. Tin / lead
solder
is a stable substance. No matter how much you run water over solder, the
lead ain't gonna leach out of it in sufficient concentration to be a
problem. Even if you factor in acid rain - and there's a lot less of that
now that there are laws against noxious airborne waste discharges of nasty
stuff like sulphur dioxide - you still have a hard job washing lead out of
solder into the water table.
[...]
Tell that to the Romans, whose much-lauded plumbing systems-- a marvel
of the ancient world -- were made with lead pipes, which many
historians have indicted as one of the reasons for the Decline and
Fall (crazy emperors, etc.)
Aspasia
But you see this is just the sort of unsubstantiated hearsay that
perpetuates these myths, and gets the eco-crazies going in the first place.
" Which many historians have indicted etc ". These people are just that -
historians with an idea, not scientists with facts. All of the water in the
UK was distributed by lead pipes up until a few years ago. In some rural
areas, and certainly within many houses, it still is. My generation, and
certainly up to mine, weren't crazy. Judging by what I see of kids now,
including my own, we had a far higher level of inherent intelligence. The
current craziness of the society here, could be said to have commenced with
the introduction of plastic water pipes, so perhaps we should jump right on
the bandwagon here, and start making all sorts of unsubstantiated claims
about brain-destroying substances from oily plastics such as polythene,
getting into the water supply. And just maybe, I've got something there,
with all the current stuff about short term memory loss that everyone claims
to be suffering from - even to the point where Nintendo or whoever it is,
have brought out a memory exercising game for busy execs on the move ... !!
As far as lead in the water from lead pipes goes, again, in general, this is
nonsense. I sincerely hope that for the most part, the water treatment
company supply me with water that is largely pure and neutral. This will not
cause the lead to break down and wash out in any quantity that is a problem.
If there is anything else in the water in substantial quantity, it is likely
to be some flouride compound, added by the water company, and thus
representing *definite* proven, and government-sponsored pollution of the
water supply with a harmful substance ( no one is really sure what the real
long-term effects of poisoning people in this way are ), or calcium
compounds which were in the water in the first place. As we all know, these
rapidly precipitate out of the water, and coat the insides of the pipes as
limescale, be them copper or lead. Once this has occured, there can no
longer be even any perceived threat, let alone a real one, from the lead
that the pipe is fundamentally made from.
Arfa
