[HN Gopher] Leaded fuel reduced IQ of children born before 1990
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Leaded fuel reduced IQ of children born before 1990
        
       Author : merlinscholz
       Score  : 331 points
       Date   : 2021-10-20 13:35 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | Tagbert wrote:
       | Small airplanes still use a leaded aviation fuel known as Avgas.
       | I think of that every time I drive by the airport in the middle
       | of Renton, WA right next to the lake.
       | https://generalaviationnews.com/2019/06/06/the-future-of-unl...
        
         | gengelbro wrote:
         | We're near a small airport and I think of this every time they
         | fly over (which is quite frequently).
         | 
         | Essentially hobby aviation is completely stuck in the 1970s and
         | getting the engines modernized would be "cost prohibitive".
         | 
         | Since wealthy people still want to play around in planes they
         | get to rain lead on our heads.
        
           | londons_explore wrote:
           | If I were in government, I would tax avgas at $100/gallon
           | this year, $1000/gallon next year, and $10,000/gallon the
           | year after.
           | 
           | Then the super-rich can continue to fly, paying the nation
           | for the economic and health effects they're causing, but
           | regular hobbyists will have to ground their planes till
           | unleaded avgas is available.
           | 
           | Should be easy-ish to enforce, because planes and flight
           | plans are registered, and anyone paying no tax and flying a
           | lot ought to be easy to catch.
        
             | andrepd wrote:
             | Why not phase-out completely then, rather than allow a few
             | thousands to buy an exception?
        
             | bluejellybean wrote:
             | As a side effect, this would completely destroy the
             | pipeline for commercial aviation (think big jet) pilots.
             | Pretty much everyone starts on small crafts and then
             | proceeds to burn hundreds of hours of avfuel in the process
             | of getting to their commercial licenses. Considering the
             | scale and importance of the aviation sector, as well as the
             | ongoing shortage of trained pilots in the field today, the
             | results of your policy would be catastrophic.
             | 
             | The industry is rapidly trying to move to do two things, 1.
             | remove lead from the fuel, this is noted by other
             | commenters. And 2. Pushing for more electric GA.
             | 
             | Pilots don't exactly like getting their hands covered in
             | lead when they check fuel, much less dumping it into the
             | atmosphere when they fly, but it's still an unfortunate
             | fact of life. Times are absolutely changing though, and the
             | future looks bright.
        
               | outworlder wrote:
               | > Pilots don't exactly like getting their hands covered
               | in lead when they check fuel,
               | 
               | Or having their spark plugs fouled by the same lead.
        
               | Scoundreller wrote:
               | North America has gotten off easy by pushing the training
               | onto pilots themselves.
               | 
               | If banning leaded gas leads to qualified pilot shortage,
               | the industry only has itself to blame for failing to
               | train the people it needs.
               | 
               | Lufthansa at least (and maybe most big euro flag
               | carriers?) runs its own "ab initio" training, where it
               | takes non-pilots and makes them into pilots with a job.
               | 
               | Lufthansa has warned cadets they won't need to hire for a
               | few years: https://www.businessinsider.com/in-crisis-
               | lufthansa-restruct...
               | 
               | Not sure if there's a shortage of skilled pilots today as
               | flight counts are still down like 20% in USA vs 2019, and
               | generally a sharper decline elsewhere.
        
             | outworlder wrote:
             | Good thing you are not in the government.
             | 
             | 'Hobbyists' have been waiting for lead free avgas for
             | decades. You should just crush their planes while you are
             | at it.
             | 
             | While the super rich do whatever they want? By the way, if
             | you are super-rich, you are probably burning Jet-A anyway,
             | not AVGAS.
             | 
             | The real fix is to just issue the damn regulation and
             | provide some incentives. Engines have to be overhauled and
             | replaced periodically anyways. Make it easier to recertify
             | aircraft, provide a path for aircraft that no longer have
             | the original manufacturer around. Give incentives for small
             | airports to stock on whatever the proposed avgas
             | replacement is until the demand catches up.
             | 
             | > flight plans are registered
             | 
             | No they aren't. No requirement for flight plans in VFR.
             | 
             | If you are proposing such harsh legislation, you should at
             | least try to learn something about the subject matter.
        
               | kloch wrote:
               | The real fix is better battery technology
        
               | outworlder wrote:
               | Indeed. Electric engines would be outstanding. Cheaper to
               | buy and maintain, no 'turbocharger' shenanigans to fly at
               | high altitudes, more reliable, less noisy.
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | The 1970s would be a great leap forward for civil aviation.
           | The widespread aircraft that are only certified to run on
           | leaded fuel are all derivatives of World War 2 designs. The
           | engine of a Cessna 172 has been in continuous production
           | since 1955 and has parts that are interchangeable with
           | engines back to 1939.
        
           | FearlessNebula wrote:
           | It's not just wealthy people, it's predominantly student
           | pilots. Wealthy pilots are burning diesel or Jet A in newer
           | luxury planes like the Cirrus Vision.
        
             | gengelbro wrote:
             | I've seen this asserted elsewhere, but I'm wondering what
             | evidence exists that flight hours on leaded planes are
             | _predominately_ due to student pilots?
        
           | base698 wrote:
           | Unless you live on the airport in a hangar it's not going to
           | be in concentrations high enough to worry about.
           | 
           | The wealthy are in jets or turbo props which don't use leaded
           | gas.
        
         | jws wrote:
         | In the US avgas (which has similar lead content to pre-phaseout
         | automotive gasoline) is 0.14% of gasoline usage and declining
         | at about 5%/year.
         | 
         | Fuel supplied lead is a 99.86% solved problem which is solving
         | itself.
         | 
         | Congress has been funding a program to develop lead free fuel
         | which can safely power aviation piston engines, it is ongoing.
         | Intermediate results are largely not available because it is
         | required to protect all commercial entities participating.
         | https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/avgas/
         | 
         | Here is a nice article from someone involved in avgas lead
         | removal: https://www.avweb.com/insider/going-to-the-moon-was-
         | easy-com...
        
           | cellularmitosis wrote:
           | Can you help us laypersons understand why leaded gas is still
           | needed in GA engines? Is this as simple as using better valve
           | seats or something? I mean cars haven't needed leaded gas for
           | a long time, why can't GA aircraft just use modern parts /
           | engines?
        
             | DebtDeflation wrote:
             | Not an aviation guy, but a car guy. Lead has historically
             | been used to raise the octane rating of gasoline. Octane
             | rating expresses the resistance of the fuel to "knock"
             | which is the sudden explosion of the air-fuel mixture
             | inside the cylinder versus a controlled burn and which can
             | damage the engine. The main factor that raises the octane
             | requirement of an engine is the compression ratio (max
             | cylinder volume to min cylinder volume). High compression
             | ratios generate more horsepower but require higher octane
             | fuel. The other thing is that lead lubricates the valve
             | seats preventing excess wear, but that's a solved problem
             | with hardened valve seats.
        
             | throwaway0a5e wrote:
             | Because they were designed for leaded gas and you can't
             | just modify certified aviation stuff without spending
             | millions on the process of getting your modification
             | approved.
        
               | MaxBarraclough wrote:
               | I think it's more that most aviation piston engines were
               | originally approved for use with leaded fuel, and things
               | have been slow to change. At least some of them
               | apparently run fine on the right unleaded fuel.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas#UL94_(formerly_94UL)
        
           | andrepd wrote:
           | > Intermediate results are largely not available because it
           | is required to protect all commercial entities participating.
           | 
           | Ironically, "protecting commercial interests" is why the
           | whole lead fuel catastrophe came to be.
        
           | 55873445216111 wrote:
           | There is a big fight over Avgas going on in San Jose over
           | Reid Hillview airport.
           | 
           | Yes, while total use of leaded fuel now makes up a tiny
           | percentage, it is still measurably significant to the people
           | who live in the flight path of a municipal airport.
           | 
           | https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/08/18/reid-
           | hillview-a...
        
             | outworlder wrote:
             | They are using that as an excuse to close the airport since
             | that's in an area where real state is highly valued. Reid
             | Hillview is a 'relief' airport - that means it is used to
             | shift small GA traffic away from San Jose airport.
             | 
             | Those aircraft will not disappear, they will just move to
             | SJC a few miles away and pollute just as much.
             | 
             | I seriously doubt that, if the lead was removed overnight,
             | they would change their minds and stop complaining about
             | the airport. This NIMBY fight is older than that.
             | 
             | I feel similarly about my HOA who complains about noise
             | pollution from SJC. The airport predates the houses by
             | decades but now it is suddenly a problem.
             | 
             | There should be far more outrage about lead in avgas than
             | there is today - maybe then the FAA and EPA would stop
             | bickering and issue some new regulation. Noone wants to
             | take responsibility for the monetary damage and possible
             | disasters stemming from the decision to phase out lead, so
             | decades later we are still looking for the perfect avgas
             | replacement.
             | 
             | Meanwhile, European planes are transitioning to other
             | fuels. Either Jet-A or motor gas. Diamond has developed
             | great engines, but when their aircraft are sold in the US,
             | guess which engines they use? People will ask specifically
             | for lead burning Lycoming or Continental. If there was a
             | penalty for doing that, maybe this would change.
        
               | jeffbee wrote:
               | Counterpoint: if we remove the habitat for civil
               | aviation, it will, in fact, disappear. And we should:
               | it's just a nuisance and serves no real purpose. The idea
               | that civil aviators provide disaster relief, as advocated
               | by those who favor keeping Reid-Hillview open, is
               | completely absurd. A single flight of a real aircraft
               | such as a C-5 at SJC would carry more materiel than 1000s
               | of GA operations.
        
               | imoverclocked wrote:
               | KRHV and GA in general are part of an ecosystem. There is
               | Angel Flight West for instance which is only possible
               | because of small GA aircraft.
               | 
               | A giant aircraft requires a giant amount of fuel, a giant
               | runway and a pilot who has spent a whole lot of hours
               | flying non-commercially. Without GA and small planes, we
               | might also not have sustainable commercial-aviation.
               | 
               | My CFI took off to go work for the airlines because of
               | increased demand several months ago. Without GA he may
               | not have had an opportunity to stay with aviation at all.
               | One can not learn everything needed to fly an aircraft in
               | a simulator.
        
               | RNCTX wrote:
               | Diamond has not developed great engines. There's a video
               | floating around of them quite literally taking stock
               | Mercedes taxi diesels apart and putting different oil
               | coolers on them.
               | 
               | The only difference in design besides those oil coolers
               | was their gearbox, which was a joke from day one.
               | Firstly, diesel produces RPMs similar to what a small
               | aircraft propeller wants so even having a gearbox is
               | either a revenue-generating design intended to fail, or
               | an exercise in stupidity. You can tell me which, I
               | honestly don't know.
               | 
               | Nor has Diamond developed great aircraft in other
               | aspects, either. Their stick rather than a yoke design
               | was also a cost-cutter, but no one wants to ride around
               | with a piece of metal hitting them in the balls, either.
               | Socata and Cirrus did a much better job of interior
               | design than Diamond, which is why they're still making
               | ever-more-complex airplanes, and Diamond is flirting with
               | bankruptcy.
               | 
               | The solution to general aviation getting rid of leaded
               | gas is someone to make small turbines, and the only thing
               | holding that back is the FAA.
        
               | outworlder wrote:
               | What the heck. Fully FADEC controlled and reliable
               | engines with automated runup tests, what's not great
               | about them? That the original design was derived from the
               | automotive industry?
               | 
               | I am not qualified to comment on the need of the gearbox.
               | I would suspect that neither are you.
               | 
               | > their stick rather than a yoke design was also a cost-
               | cutter, but no one wants to ride around with a piece of
               | metal hitting them in the balls, either.
               | 
               | The large numbers of people flying RV10s seem to
               | disagree. Diamond doesn't have a monopoly on the center
               | stick. Passengers may not like the floor mounted stick,
               | but pilots? Meh. The passenger stick is removable on the
               | DA42 and 62.
               | 
               | You can't seriously take a Diamond Twinstar and tell me
               | that's not a great aircraft.
               | 
               | > The solution to general aviation getting rid of leaded
               | gas is someone to make small turbines
               | 
               | Right, I can picture it right now, a C172 with a turbine
               | engine. Maintenance and fuel requirements aren't even in
               | the same league, no matter how small this turbine is.
               | 
               | As shown elsewhere in this thread, the lead-free, drop-in
               | replacement has been approved.
        
             | imoverclocked wrote:
             | That airport has 100 octane mogas available now. Pilots
             | from other airports have been flying there to fuel up
             | instead of using the 100LL at their local airport.
             | 
             | Source: I fly at KRHV
        
               | idubrov wrote:
               | Interesting.
               | 
               | When I was doing my research on ULPower engines (which
               | can burn 100LL, but they would prefer non-leaded), there
               | were very few airports who offered unleaded fuel (UL94).
               | I think, San Carlos / KSQL was the only one I found?
               | 
               | I wonder what KRHV closure would mean for unleaded fuel?
               | So everybody would just switch back to 100LL? How is that
               | supposed to help?
               | 
               | Wouldn't be more practical (from the point of lead
               | pollution) to enforce non-leaded fuels in those small
               | airports instead? My cursory research shows that lot (?)
               | of these light planes (and, perhaps, the majority of the
               | trainer/weekend hobby aircrafts) would happily burn non-
               | leaded fuel (UL94, for instance), with corresponding STC.
        
               | outworlder wrote:
               | > Wouldn't be more practical (from the point of lead
               | pollution) to enforce non-leaded fuels in those small
               | airports instead
               | 
               | Definitely. It solves one problem.
               | 
               | It doesn't solve the "this airport takes space that could
               | be used for parking lots" problem.
        
         | __turbobrew__ wrote:
         | The first unleaded avgas was approved by the FAA this year:
         | https://gami.com/g100ul/G100UL_Oshkosh_Press_Release.pdf
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | No. Unleaded aviation fuels have been available forever. That
           | certification helps people convert obsolete aircraft to
           | unleaded at lower cost, a thing which should be a non-goal of
           | national policy. The federal government should _outlaw_
           | leaded aviation fuels _immediately_ and let the hobby
           | aviation community figure out how to proceed from there.
        
             | __turbobrew__ wrote:
             | Small planes are used for much more than hobbyist uses.
             | Prior to G100UL there were no drop in replacements which
             | made adoption of unleaded avgas fuels impractical. G100UL
             | can be manufactured at the existing avgas plants, stored
             | and transported in the existing avgas infrastructure, and
             | even mixed with leaded avgas.
             | 
             | Banning unleaded fuel without a replacement would have been
             | heavy handed and short sighted. The government should be
             | working with industry partners to develop a suitable
             | replacement -- as G100UL was -- and subsidize the fuel
             | costs to make the more expensive replacement the same cost
             | as leaded fuel.
        
             | outworlder wrote:
             | > Unleaded aviation fuels have been available forever
             | 
             | True. But irrelevant if most aircraft cannot use it.
             | 
             | > That certification helps people convert obsolete aircraft
             | 
             | Obsolete? Is a Cirrus SR-22 obsolete?
             | 
             | > The federal government should outlaw leaded aviation
             | fuels immediately and let the hobby aviation community
             | figure out how to proceed from there.
             | 
             | The government also uses planes. Whole industries use
             | piston planes. And helicopters. Why are you singling out
             | 'hobby' aircraft?
             | 
             | Mind you, experimental aircraft have been able to use
             | unleaded fuels (including automotive gasoline) for a while
             | now. The reason most can't is that there were no fuels
             | certified for use in their aircraft. Certification
             | requirements come from the government, so the government
             | has to fix it.
        
               | jeffbee wrote:
               | > Is a Cirrus SR-22 obsolete?
               | 
               | Yes, the naturally-aspirated SR22 that requires 100LL is
               | obsolete. The turbocharged SR22T that can use unleaded is
               | not.
               | 
               | One of the nice things about having principled beliefs is
               | the ability to unambiguously answer simple questions.
        
           | outworlder wrote:
           | YAY. Missed that!
           | 
           | Drop in replacement, no engine changes, no performance
           | changes, no compatibility issues with storage tanks,
           | pipelines, anything.
           | 
           | They are claiming it will even increase time between
           | overhauls, prolong spark plug life, maybe even increase
           | engine life and require less oil changes.
           | 
           | Seems more costly though. But if the above materializes it
           | might offset the costs too.
           | 
           | That sounds like the holy grail - if more airframes are
           | issued STCs
        
           | lutorm wrote:
           | This is awesome. However, since it appears every certified
           | airplane needs an STC to be able to use it, it doesn't seem
           | likely that I'll be able to use it in our experimental
           | aircraft any time soon. I can't imagine that our small FBO
           | will switch from 100LL to G100UL as long as there are any
           | airplanes around that can't use it.
        
       | funnyflamigo wrote:
       | I'm curious how leaded fuel effected children born in the Roman
       | empire, as they were born before 1990 and had not discovered
       | leaded fuel gasoline yet (or combustion engines).
        
         | bserge wrote:
         | They used lead for everything _but_ fuel :D
        
         | mrtranscendence wrote:
         | Wow, I went to dictionary.com and looked up "pedantic", and all
         | it contained was a link back to this comment.
        
         | whoomp12342 wrote:
         | primary reason the roman empire fell..
        
         | firebaze wrote:
         | Romans used lead obviously not as fuel, but they did use it,
         | for example for the lining of aqueducts:
         | https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wi...
        
           | mywittyname wrote:
           | White paint made using lead dates back to _at least_ 2500
           | years in Greece.
        
           | f00zz wrote:
           | Some time ago there was a link to an article here on HN about
           | lead poisoning in ancient Rome. It mentioned how they used to
           | boil grape juice (to concentrate its natural sugars) in lead
           | containers.
           | 
           | Edit: doh, should have clicked on your link. That was the
           | article.
        
       | dragonwriter wrote:
       | > Millennials are the first to be born with unleaded gas
       | 
       | Leaded fuel for passenger cars was banned in the US in 1996; the
       | usual birth year range for millenials is 1981-1996.
       | 
       | Gen Z were the first to be born, in the US, with unleaded gas.
        
       | tediousdemise wrote:
       | This is highly tangential, but abuse of a fetus needs to be a
       | federal crime. My mother drank caffeine and smoked while
       | pregnant, and I will live with the consequences for the rest of
       | my life. It is unforgiveable.
        
         | bobmaxup wrote:
         | You wouldn't even exist if your mother didn't nurse you into
         | being. Maybe one thing outweighs the other?
        
       | nicolas_t wrote:
       | I'm curious what was worse, leaded gasoline or Diesel? I was
       | reading about France's phase out of leaded gasoline and saw that
       | it happened relatively late with unleaded appearing on the market
       | in 1990 and leaded gasoline being banned in 1995 only.
       | 
       | But before that, it seems that Diesel had started getting popular
       | in the 80s and 90s.
        
         | Scoundreller wrote:
         | Depends on what matters more: your lungs or IQ.
         | 
         | Having said that, a lot of countries do a poor job of lead
         | control/monitoring in plumbing/water distribution.
         | 
         | > There is growing evidence that the scale of problems with
         | lead in drinking water has been under-estimated in Europe, due
         | to inadequate monitoring. Particularly in the older districts
         | of towns and cities, where lead pipes can be common
         | 
         | https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/Hoekstra%202010...
         | 
         | It's quite a rabbit hole to go through. Distribution pipes, pH,
         | corrosion control, service lines, internal piping, leaching for
         | PVC even, interior fittings, flow rates, consumption
         | patterns...
        
       | k__ wrote:
       | I read burning stuff is generally considered harmful.
       | 
       | So, while electric cars might not be the perfect ecological
       | solution, it might at bring us direct health benefits in the long
       | run.
        
       | anovikov wrote:
       | Conclusion 2: there is disappearingly little connection between
       | IQ and socioeconomic status :) Something that doing custom
       | development proves with every new client...
        
         | SquibblesRedux wrote:
         | Just throwing this out there:
         | 
         | "Specifically, children from low SES families scored on average
         | 6 IQ points lower at age 2 than children from high SES
         | backgrounds; by age 16, this difference had almost tripled. ...
         | Overall, SES was shown to be associated with individual
         | differences in intercepts as well as slopes of intelligence.
         | However, this finding does not warrant causal interpretations
         | of the relationship between SES and the development of
         | intelligence." [1]
         | 
         | [1] Socioeconomic status and the growth of intelligence from
         | infancy through adolescence
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4641149/
        
         | bpodgursky wrote:
         | What? This is wildly untrue.
        
       | vr46 wrote:
       | I am a member of my old school's alumni orgnization and at our
       | meetups, nearly all the other alumni are 17-25 years younger than
       | me, and frighteningly intelligent, and I am very much hoping that
       | lead poisoning accounts for this...
        
       | twistedpair wrote:
       | Watched my neighbor powersand lead paint off his house yesterday.
       | He wasn't even wearing a mask. Makes you wonder how many decades
       | until we don't have as much lead in the environment? 50 years?
        
       | bloomper123 wrote:
       | Reduced intelligence is always a "problem" with almost any
       | generation. I've just seen a statistic that for the first time
       | since 1970, youth math scores have dropped. Most of this is not a
       | big problem
        
       | truthwhisperer wrote:
       | and in the 00 it will be mass immigration of people who are
       | according local standard tests regarded as retarded.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | tgtweak wrote:
       | There is so many other factors at play here than lead levels.
       | Lead levels are tied to calendar - many MANY other things changed
       | with the calendar in line with that which could have affected
       | measured IQ. This feels like a millenial/boomer rally tweet
       | masquerading as science.
        
       | AnonMessiah wrote:
       | We continue to see capitalism choose profit over the health and
       | wellbeing of _every_ living thing on the planet. Industries
       | suppressing anything that paints them in a bad light, lobbying to
       | get laws favoring them passed, and ignoring and actively lying
       | about the long term harm that they perpetuate so they can have
       | _number go up_ in their bank statements.
        
       | scionthefly wrote:
       | If it hadn't been for leaded fuel, lead paint, football / TBI, my
       | parents smoking, and getting rolled off a changing table as a
       | baby, I could have been intelligent. _sigh_
        
         | mrtranscendence wrote:
         | My eldest brother always joked that he lost IQ points when the
         | doctors used forceps on him during birth. Jokes on him, the
         | lead and the maternal smoking would've done him in anyway.
        
       | JabavuAdams wrote:
       | What about shooting ranges? Heard hickock45 on Youtube crunching
       | as he walked and realized that the gravel I was seeing was
       | actually spent casings. Maybe another reason not to take the kids
       | to the range. Do COVID-mitigation factors help with lead
       | dust/aerosols?
        
         | paulmd wrote:
         | Yes, gunsmoke does contain lead and it's not something you want
         | to breathe in. Surgical masks will do very little, N99 or
         | respirators will do better. However it's best practice to
         | always wash your hands and preferably shower after shooting.
         | 
         | This also applies to handling or reloading ammo. Primers are
         | lead-based compounds (generally lead styphnate) and most
         | bullets are either soft lead or jacketed lead. If you are
         | handling ammo, bullets, or spent casings, wash your hands
         | after.
         | 
         | There is obviously a continuum of exposure and different routes
         | of exposure here. Lead on your hands isn't ideal but if you
         | don't touch your face or eat with dirty hands, kinda whatever.
         | With smoke, you breathe it in simply by being there. You
         | definitely want to look at the airflow on an indoor range,
         | there should be a considerable amount of "whoosh" and palpable
         | airflow, and even then it's probably still a low or moderate
         | amount of exposure. Outdoors ranges will have even less
         | exposure, but probably still not zero, you're still right near
         | the breech.
         | 
         | And yeah generally kids are more susceptible to lead exposure
         | than adults. Not that it's great for adults but it will truly
         | mess up your development to get significant exposure as a
         | child.
         | 
         | "orange lava soap" with the pumice in it is also better than
         | just regular hand soap, as it's more abrasive and will do a
         | better job scraping the lead off.
        
           | JabavuAdams wrote:
           | All good, but what about the lead leaching into the ground
           | and water at outdoor ranges? Is there any requirement to test
           | if e.g. you shoot on private property?
           | 
           | In Canada you could be licenced to shoot outdoors on your own
           | property (e.g. PAL + non-restricted firearm), but not be
           | allowed to use the area habitually, or repeatedly as that
           | would make it a shooting range. It seems like having a
           | shooting gallery or plinking spot with persistent targets
           | would fail the test.
        
             | anonfornoreason wrote:
             | No requirements, no tests. There's a bunch of stories of
             | indoor gun ranges being horrifically contaminated, due to
             | lead from the primer compounds when ignited + vaporized
             | lead from the back of the bullet (back of the bullet is
             | almost always exposed lead core, so you get some vaporized
             | with the explosion). Some maintenance workers, demolition
             | crews etc working on these buildings have had terrible,
             | life altering exposures.
             | 
             | I do a lot of shooting and avoid indoor ranges. They are so
             | contaminated there are many cases of cops coming home and
             | poisoning their kids due to contamination on clothing,
             | shoes, etc.
             | 
             | I personally buy "clean fire" ammo, which has no exposed
             | lead core on the bullet, and has clean burning primers.
             | More expensive, but I like to keep my brain healthy, and I
             | have kids that could easily get exposed.
        
       | intrasight wrote:
       | There is still a great deal of lead in the soil of urban
       | residential homes.
        
       | shadowtree wrote:
       | Some secluded tribes in the Amazon hence have the smartest kids.
        
       | 988747 wrote:
       | I guess I was lucky to be born in a communist country, where cars
       | were pretty rare...
        
       | thinkcontext wrote:
       | Millions of lives and $Ts in health damage has been done and
       | continues to be done by lead[0]. And it was largely avoidable
       | because the dangers were known.
       | 
       | 99 years ago the League of Nations signed a treaty banning indoor
       | leaded paint. The US, of course, declined to join and it took
       | another 50 years before it took action. Concerns were raised
       | about leaded gasoline, industry steamrolled the science.
       | 
       | And it was just a couple of months ago that the final country
       | (Algeria) stopped producing leaded consumer road fuel.
       | 
       | For a good history see
       | 
       | https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/secret-history-lea...
       | 
       | [0] An Update on Childhood Lead Poisoning
       | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5645046/
       | 
       | As many as 500,000 US children (2.5%) under 6 years have BLLs >=5
       | ug/dL. Each lead-exposed child costs an estimated $5600 in
       | medical and special educational services.7 Lead exposure-related
       | cognitive impairments cost an estimated $50.9 billion annually in
       | lost US economic productivity.6
        
         | slownews45 wrote:
         | My big complaint is that
         | 
         | a) Leaded aviation fuel, an absolutely KNOWN hazard, has been
         | given a pass for literal DECADES.
         | 
         | b) At some point you have to just put your foot down. Ban the
         | sale leaded gas using planes after 1/1/2022. Grandfather in the
         | old planes.
         | 
         | c) Ban the sale of leaded gas to fill planes with changes in
         | registrations after 1/1/2023.
         | 
         | d) Ban the sale of leaded gas period after 1/1/2025.
         | 
         | Industry has been given (more) than enough time to solve this -
         | and does not care.
         | 
         | I live near an airport, with a pregnant wife and a young child.
         | The total hassle it is to deal with just old lead paint if you
         | try and follow code is rediculous, but they still have planes
         | flying over burning LEADED fuel!! WHY?
         | 
         | Most planes don't need leaded gas. Jet-A / Diesel etc can also
         | be used in planes. And yes, I understand small, old GA planes
         | may be impacted, but this has been on the radar for decades
         | now.
         | 
         | "There is no known safe blood lead concentration; even blood
         | lead concentrations as low as 5 ug/dL may be associated with
         | decreased intelligence in children, behavioural difficulties
         | and learning problems. As lead exposure increases, the range
         | and severity of symptoms and effects also increase."
        
           | nawgz wrote:
           | Damn, it makes so much sense that aviation fuel is leaded. I
           | have been a fortunately healthy person for my life, but at
           | one point I lived downtown San Jose (which for the non-locals
           | has an airport in the middle of the city), right under the
           | main landing/takeoff path. I got sick 6x a year or more.
           | After 1 and 2/3 years, I realized that it was probably the
           | planes and moved away, and now I haven't been sick since
           | except maybe once or twice (over 3y).
           | 
           | Just awful.
        
             | slownews45 wrote:
             | It's unlikely to have been a direct cause given the
             | (relatively) low levels of lead avgas generates, but it
             | almost certainly has some effect.
             | 
             | The question is, given that it's so clearly a poison (maybe
             | a top 10 poison) - why spray it into the air above
             | residential neighborhood?
             | 
             | Lead impacts are around things like "anaemia, hypertension,
             | renal impairment, immunotoxicity and toxicity to the
             | reproductive organs. The neurological and behavioural
             | effects of lead are believed to be irreversible."
             | 
             | Reality is measurable increases in lead concentrations in
             | blood near airports is very small. But does look like it
             | exists.
        
             | mlyle wrote:
             | Large airplanes/jets do not use leaded fuels. Only small
             | piston planes. Even right under the takeoff path, aviation
             | lead exposure would only be a moderate proportion of your
             | total lead exposure.
        
               | nawgz wrote:
               | Interesting, I see what you are saying. Well, I guess
               | aviation fuel byproducts aren't great to have sprayed on
               | your home every day either way :)
        
             | idiotsecant wrote:
             | While it's unlikely that you had significant lead exposure
             | due to this as others have pointed out, I also wouldn't
             | discount your issues with getting sick more often,
             | particularly if it was upper respiratory illnesses - people
             | who live under airport flight paths are exposed to up to 4x
             | as much harmful exhaust gas byproducts, superfine
             | particulates, and other nasty particles* vs baseline.
             | 
             | It's amazing that airports aren't required to purchase and
             | relocate the (typically poor) people who are absolutely
             | getting their lifespans shortened by living near an
             | airport.
             | 
             | *(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32639745/)
        
           | throwaway803453 wrote:
           | I was a child in a major city when leaded gasoline was
           | prevalent and I live by an airport now. I probably see as
           | many propeller airplanes in a year as I did automobiles in 5
           | minutes as a child playing in the street. This is also
           | comparing an airplane off in the distance to a car running a
           | few dozen feet away. So perhaps your recommended ban wouldn't
           | move the needle at all when it comes to blood lead
           | concentrations.
           | 
           | Or perhaps this is the benefit of having younger people in
           | government. Because 50 year old like me thinks "massive
           | progress made, don't waste time on diminishing returns" by
           | comparing the current situation to the distant past. Whereas
           | someone younger sees the threat differently.
           | 
           | Frankly, the propellor airplanes I do see are mostly military
           | which will likely not be impacted by any regulations. I am
           | also making the assumption only propellor airplanes could be
           | using unleaded gas.
        
             | mlyle wrote:
             | Military propeller airplanes are almost all turboprops and
             | do not burn leaded gasoline.
             | 
             | edit: perhaps "all", not "almost all", in the US.
        
           | mlyle wrote:
           | > b) At some point you have to just put your foot down. Ban
           | the sale leaded gas using planes after 1/1/2022. Grandfather
           | in the old planes.
           | 
           | A measure like this may be reasonable.
           | 
           | But C/D totals the entire piston aircraft fleet-- $50B+ of
           | capital equip, plus the whole infrastructure and industry
           | around it-- for only a very moderate change in lead exposure.
           | Best estimates I've seen is that this would lower the total
           | population burden from lead by well under 5%.
           | 
           | Much more sane, IMO, to put in a progressively escalating tax
           | on leaded aviation fuels that over time becomes steep. Then
           | airplanes can gradually transition as overhauls become due,
           | etc, as the pressure from operating costs mounts. Presumably
           | those burning the most fuel would transition first, and an
           | industry capable of retrofitting a few percent of the
           | aircraft per year would spring up.
        
             | lutorm wrote:
             | _airplanes can gradually transition_
             | 
             | Except they can't, since there is no approved alternative.
             | 
             | The other problem is that even planes that can run unleaded
             | gas often don't, because it's not available at the airport.
             | Avgas is a tiny market and because of costs most FBOs can't
             | or won't set up another fuel delivery infrastructure to run
             | two fuels over some short transition period.
             | 
             | Because of this, an additional requirement on a replacement
             | is also that it be safely mixable with 100LL in any ratio,
             | because during the transition period this will happen as
             | people fly from airports where it exists to airports where
             | it doesn't.
             | 
             | This problem is being solved
             | (https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/avgas/).
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | > Except they can't, since there is no approved
               | alternative.
               | 
               | There's an increasing number of diesel engines for GA
               | aircraft, and supplemental type certificates to retrofit
               | them into the same. If 100LL got more expensive, you'd
               | see more people opting for the diesels when an engine
               | reaches the end of its life.
               | 
               | e.g. http://www.continentaldiesel.com/typo3/fileadmin/_ce
               | nturion/...
               | 
               | Yes, it'd be really cool to end up with a lower-lead fuel
               | that's safely combined with 100LL. That's been "imminent"
               | for the last 25 years.
               | 
               | The poster above advocates for a "rip off the band-aid"
               | approach. GA advocates for a gradual, painless transition
               | that, in practice, will never happen. Surely there's
               | _some_ middle ground?
        
               | lutorm wrote:
               | A post further down says that the first unleaded
               | replacement for 100LL was actually just approved.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | Swift UL94 has been to market for 3 years with very low
               | uptake.
        
               | Aloha wrote:
               | Because as far as I know the engines must have their type
               | acceptance updates to reflect it's allowed use.
               | 
               | 3 years is also basically a second at the speeds GA
               | changes at.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | Yes, technically speaking.
               | 
               | Swift charges $100 for a STC, and has coverage of two
               | thirds of the GA fleet.
               | 
               | Really, all that needs to happen is an airport needs to
               | decide that lead free is important to them and they'll
               | pay the premium for Swift's fuel.
        
               | Blackthorn wrote:
               | Continental diesels still have "TBR" (time between
               | replacements) instead of "TBO" (time between overhauls).
               | That's a huge problem preventing their uptake.
        
             | gbrown wrote:
             | > Best estimates I've seen is that this would lower the
             | total population burden from lead by well under 5%.
             | 
             | That sounds pretty great actually, for such a simple
             | solution.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | It's not absolutely a sure thing that there's _any_
               | significant burden from aviation. Blood tests come up
               | with a tiny, barely detectable difference near airports
               | (well under 5% for those nearest the airport, and
               | confounded: airports are correlated with low SES and
               | therefore lead paint, etc, is also more prevalent). The
               | most pessimistic estimates from first principles come up
               | with 2-3% of the total population lead burden (more than
               | an order of magnitude above what the blood tests imply,
               | and the blood tests likely overstate the problem).
               | 
               | If you threw a few billion more at leaded paint
               | remediation, I think you'd make much more of a
               | difference. I think the aviation lead problem should get
               | fixed, but because it's such a small part of the overall
               | problem it makes sense to take a graduated approach
               | instead of giving GA businesses the death penalty. Tax
               | leaded aviation fuels, and use the proceeds to pay for
               | leaded paint remediation.
        
               | slownews45 wrote:
               | If the tax was substantial I'd support this.
               | 
               | Graduated approach ignores the decades that have ALREADY
               | been provided as an exception to the lead fuel rules that
               | apply everywhere else - it's already been graduated.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | > If the tax was substantial I'd support this.
               | 
               | Start at 10% with a commitment to ratchet it up by 4% per
               | year or something. That's enough to start an immediate
               | reduction without destroying the industry.
               | 
               | If you're making choices about engine overhaul now for an
               | overhaul that will last you 7-8 years of light use, fuel
               | costing 40% more at the end of that overhaul will
               | definitely get your attention.
               | 
               | > it's already been graduated.
               | 
               | Doing nothing for decades when it was impossible; and
               | then doing nothing for a decade or two when transition
               | became possible; and then pushing the industry off the
               | cliff is not graduated.
        
               | chaxor wrote:
               | It's a small problem? I read recently that GA accounted
               | for >50% of environmental lead exposure.
               | 
               | Perhaps that's wrong, but I distinctly remember the
               | statistic and it stuck with me.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | Source please. All the studies I've read have barely
               | detected higher levels of lead near airports, and are
               | confounded. All the estimates from first principles
               | estimate that it's a very small proportion of population
               | lead exposure, too.
        
           | Aloha wrote:
           | Only piston engined planes used any fuel with lead, virtually
           | no commercially operated flights use piston engines
           | (sightseeing and bush pilots aside), so the vast majority,
           | basically 95% of traffic in the skies is already using Jet-A,
           | which does not contain lead.
        
           | lutorm wrote:
           | _Most planes don 't need leaded gas. Jet-A / Diesel etc can
           | also be used in planes. And yes, I understand small, old GA
           | planes may be impacted, but this has been on the radar for
           | decades now._
           | 
           | This comment makes me think you don't actually understand the
           | situation. The vast majority of aviation fuel used IS Jet-A,
           | which does not contain lead.
           | 
           | Small piston engine general aviation aircraft are the only
           | ones that use leaded gas, and most of those _can not_ use
           | anything else that exists currently.
           | 
           | I too have a pregnant wife and a young child, but I worry
           | far, far more about residual lead paint exposure than I do
           | about avgas. Both get tested regularly and show no detectable
           | levels (<2ug/dL), so that makes me feel like the risk
           | exposure is acceptable. Yes, your quote about "no known safe
           | level" is true, but at undetectable levels I'm confident it's
           | in the noise along with all other environmental factors we
           | don't know about.
           | 
           | If you're worried about lead exposure, are you testing?
        
             | slownews45 wrote:
             | There has been no push in the market to get small GA off
             | leaded gas. There has been no extra tax even. As a result,
             | new planes, being delivered today, are shipping with
             | engines requiring leaded gas, which perpetuates this
             | problem.
             | 
             | After decades - does it make public policy sense to still
             | sell NEW planes that REQUIRE leaded gas?
             | 
             | I don't believe so.
             | 
             | Literally every other method of propulsion, some with much
             | stronger claims in terms of life utility, have moved off
             | leaded gas. Ie, the ambulance, the race cars the
             | everything, except GA.
             | 
             | Reality -> GA has a well connected / rich pool of users
             | with influence. If you had a bunch of poor minorities
             | spraying even trace amounts of lead over someone's nice
             | golf course my guess is you'd be getting well off activists
             | to shut you down in no time for environmental or other
             | reasons.
        
               | alfalfasprout wrote:
               | On the contrary, there's now several unleaded options
               | coming to market and now available at certain FBOs. UL94
               | seems to work well in continental and lycoming power
               | plants that power most Cessna 1XX aircraft. The issue has
               | largely been building the distribution network.
        
               | Aloha wrote:
               | Which airplanes are on the market today that require
               | leaded gas? Specifically which power plants?
        
               | Blackthorn wrote:
               | Turbocharged Lycontinentals, and higher-compression
               | (9.5:1 or better iirc) stock Lycontinentals.
        
               | ttt333 wrote:
               | Within the subset of certified, normal category piston
               | aircraft, you will find one of these two on a sizable
               | proportion of those airplanes.
               | 
               | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoming_O-360
               | 
               | [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_IO-550
               | 
               | To my knowledge some ultralights use regular unleaded
               | (called MOGAS in some aviation contexts) and of course
               | anything that you can buy an airline ticket for outside
               | of perhaps Alaska will use jet fuel.
        
               | Aloha wrote:
               | I mean in current production aircraft.
               | 
               | It appears that most versions of the O-360 can run on
               | mogas, or unleaded gas of some sort.
               | 
               | https://www.lycoming.com/sites/default/files/SI1070AB%20S
               | pec...
               | 
               | Indeed, there does appear to be a 100UL drop in out here
               | too.
               | 
               | https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-
               | news/2021/july/27/ga...
        
             | chaxor wrote:
             | I think he is talking about GA 100L fuel. Which, as someone
             | stated elsewhere, I think absolutely should be changed to
             | 94UL across the board. I don't believe there is _no
             | possible way_ a small single prop GA plane _simply cant
             | run_ on unleaded gas. That seems eerily close to propaganda
             | from Midgley himself. Some performance alteration without
             | some small changes to the plane? Maybe. But cataosrophic
             | outcomes even with some small changes? _Highly_ unlikely.
        
               | garaetjjte wrote:
               | I think that's because some GA planes still have engines
               | designed 50+ years ago, like O-360:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoming_O-360
        
             | KiranRao0 wrote:
             | I'm very happy with the recent progress in GA Avgas. My
             | flying club recently switched from 100LL [1] to UL94 [2]
             | with no appreciable change in aircraft performance.
             | 
             | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas#100LL_(blue) [2]
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas#UL94_(formerly_94UL)
        
         | andrepd wrote:
         | > Each lead-exposed child costs an estimated $5600 in medical
         | and special educational services.7 Lead exposure-related
         | cognitive impairments cost an estimated $50.9 billion annually
         | in lost US economic productivity
         | 
         | It's quite disturbing to phrase things this way.
        
           | munk-a wrote:
           | Yes - the quantification of the problem helps with
           | comprehension but also opens the door for balancing trade
           | offs in a manner we'd likely find distasteful. If the lead
           | industry generated 60 billion of completely new money I'd
           | still be in favor of outlawing it even if it was a net loss
           | for the economy - since general quality of life is lowered by
           | lead poisoning (especially since it has been linked strongly
           | to anger issues).
        
           | nybble41 wrote:
           | I don't see it as disturbing, just focused. This phrasing
           | helps to put the problem into perspective from one particular
           | point of view--the cost in economic productivity. It does not
           | imply that this is the _only_ cost, or that there aren 't
           | other equally valid perspectives to consider.
        
         | orangepurple wrote:
         | > Concerns were raised about leaded gasoline, industry
         | steamrolled the science.
         | 
         | 2021: Concerns were raised about mRNA vaccines, industry
         | steamrolled the science.
         | 
         | Gotta rake in that dough ($$$) first
        
         | paulmd wrote:
         | And yet we still have people making the "but the science on
         | climate change wasn't and still isn't absolutely definitive"
         | defense of Michael Crichton in a different thread yesterday.
         | 
         | Climate change denialism is the lead poisoning denialism of the
         | modern era. You can actually see the denialism happening in
         | real-time with actual posters here on HN, this is the same way
         | it worked back then, this is how people delude themselves into
         | thinking they're making a scholarly defense of "facts and the
         | scientific process" when in reality they're just buying into
         | industry propaganda designed to play on that instinct.
         | 
         | Nobody need wonder how it might have happened, it's happening
         | right before your own eyes in these very threads.
        
         | selimthegrim wrote:
         | I think Algeria was using up stockpiles rather than actively
         | producing
        
           | decentman wrote:
           | Per the Wikipedia article, they continued to produce it until
           | July 2021
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead#History
        
         | zionic wrote:
         | >industry steamrolled the science.
         | 
         | Not only that, industry paid for "science" that hid the
         | dangers. People today however seem to strangely think this
         | doesn't happen anymore.
        
           | christophilus wrote:
           | It's genuinely hard to know how to make sense of information.
           | I'm generally skeptical of "big anything", whether that's
           | business or government. Incentives can be screwy at any
           | scale, but once you get to very large numbers, incentives
           | seem to simply go off the rails. Industry and governments
           | have a pretty terrible track record of skewing data to suit
           | their needs-- sometimes with a truly tragic consequences.
           | 
           | That's why my initial stance on COVID vaccines was to be
           | skeptical of the industry claims. This lumped me in with a
           | lot of quacks, and with a political (US) group with whom that
           | I don't normally align much.
           | 
           | It's been a strange few years. At this point, I'm not sure I
           | know how to strike a balance between healthy skepticism and
           | paranoia. Regarding the vaccines, I'm fully vaccinated, as
           | enough time has passed to get me to a place where I think the
           | stats bear it out.
        
             | cortesoft wrote:
             | I don't know if it is really that incentives change when
             | you get very big, as much as it is that you become more
             | capable of achieving desires that are counter to the public
             | good.
             | 
             | At smaller scales, your power isn't enough to override the
             | preferences of the masses. Get big enough, and you can.
        
             | azinman2 wrote:
             | While not impossible, it's much harder to create false
             | stats when going through clinical review with the FDA.
             | Super double extra when the lives of the world are at stake
             | and the total eyeballs on a single vaccine are so high.
        
               | londons_explore wrote:
               | But the processes are very flawed leading to the wrong
               | stats being used to make decisions.
               | 
               | For example, an experimental vaccine isn't given out
               | widely till there is good data that it is safe (often
               | taking years).
               | 
               | However, for risky diseases (like COVID), as soon as
               | there are even rough indications that it is safer than
               | COVID, it makes sense to give it to everyone. Every month
               | you spend doing more safety tests, millions of people
               | die.
               | 
               | The same is happening right now for malaria treatments
               | which are being trialled. Skipping the trial and handing
               | it out untested will probably save more lives.
        
               | fuckcensorship wrote:
               | > For example, an experimental vaccine isn't given out
               | widely till there is good data that it is safe (often
               | taking years).
               | 
               | How is this an example of "the wrong stats being used to
               | make decisions"? You believe that undergoing safety
               | trials with control groups is a bad thing because they
               | take time?
               | 
               | > However, for risky diseases (like COVID), as soon as
               | there are even rough indications that it is safer than
               | COVID, it makes sense to give it to everyone.
               | 
               | What if we find out several years down the road that the
               | vaccine is causing a drop in IQ, affecting birth rates,
               | etc.? Wouldn't it have been nice to catch these things
               | during the safety trials before injecting it into
               | billions of people?
        
               | lkbm wrote:
               | > You believe that undergoing safety trials with control
               | groups is a bad thing because they take time?
               | 
               | You can always do more trials and more studies, but at
               | some point the cost of delays outweighs the risks. A
               | blanket "this is the degree of safety testing needed" for
               | every single intervention makes no sense if the cost of
               | that testing differs significantly -- and when you have a
               | rapidly spreading disease killing millions of people, the
               | cost of delays is much higher than it would be if you're
               | trying to cure the common cold.
               | 
               | No testing at all would be a really bad idea, but "we'll
               | spend just as long testing this one as this as we would
               | on a common cold vaccine" is also a really bad idea.
               | 
               | I'd also drive faster if I were rushing to the hospital
               | with a dying friend, even though speeding is risky. You
               | have to weigh risks and benefits and do what has the best
               | expected outcome.
        
               | TheOtherHobbes wrote:
               | That's literal whataboutery and FUD.
               | 
               | Covid is a relatively known relatively high risk which
               | has killed millions and left tens of millions injured.
               | 
               | A vaccine _may_ cause problems. Possibly. Or it could
               | also not cause problems.
               | 
               | So far there is no evidence to suggest that problems are
               | particularly likely, or that they have been happening _at
               | all_ at significant risk levels.
               | 
               | The rational decision - clearly - is to deal with a
               | severe immediate threat. Not to worry about something
               | that shows no signs of happening because what if maybe
               | perhaps could happen y'know.
        
               | nybble41 wrote:
               | > What if we find out several years down the road that
               | the vaccine is causing a drop in IQ, affecting birth
               | rates, etc.?
               | 
               | What if we find out several years down the road that
               | _COVID-19_ does these things? We have a better grasp on
               | the potential side effects of the vaccine--which, after
               | all, is much simpler than a virus--than we have on the
               | potential side effects of the disease.
        
               | Sightline wrote:
               | What other reasonable choice is there?
        
           | Sharlin wrote:
           | Even worse, now we have the actual anti-science narrative
           | where, say, the Big Evil Climate Lobby is making up global
           | warming in the hopes of getting more grant money while your
           | friendly neighborhood petrochem megacorporation is just
           | trying to make do and provide jobs and petrol in your tank.
        
           | dredmorbius wrote:
           | A chief tool used by industry to deceive was to cast doubt on
           | _independent_ science and scientists. A popular book on
           | misuse of statistical methods, one that I 'd read and liked
           | myself, _How to Lie With Statistics_ , turns out to have been
           | part of that effort, as detailed by Tim Harford in his own
           | book, _How To Make The World Add Up_
           | 
           | https://timharford.com/books/worldaddup/
           | 
           |  _The ultimate cautionary tale here is Darrell Huff's 1954
           | classic, How to Lie With Statistics. Huff's book is clever,
           | insightful, and impish, and it may be the best-selling book
           | about statistics ever written. It is also, from cover to
           | cover, a warning that statistics are all about
           | misinformation, and that one should no more believe in them
           | than in stage magic. Huff ended up testifying at a Senate
           | hearing that the evidence linking smoking and cancer was as
           | spurious as the evidence linking storks and babies. His
           | unpublished sequel, How to Lie With Smoking Statistics, was
           | paid for by a tobacco-lobby group._
           | 
           | https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/the-
           | conspi...
           | 
           | People are very well aware that the war over what is truth
           | and real continues to be fought. And that it is not merely
           | corporations engaged in it, as control over truth and
           | perception is at the heart of power. "All warfare is based on
           | deception."
           | 
           | https://suntzusaid.com/book/1/18/
           | 
           | As a hint, if one side has a long record of lies, and another
           | a long record of honest relations and owning their errors ---
           | the smart money takes counsel from the second. It's wise to
           | assess one's own sources on this basis from time to time.
        
             | jimbob45 wrote:
             | I don't really understand your argument. Are you trying to
             | say that "How to Lie with Statistics" is wrong? That's an
             | unbelievably bold assertion to make on an engineering-
             | focused site where we regularly _work_ with deceptive stats
             | that the public eats up.
        
               | dredmorbius wrote:
               | It is _deceptive_ and _misleading_ with an _intent to
               | promote specific goals and agenda_.
               | 
               | The salient characteristic of propaganda is not that it
               | is (entirely) false. It is that it serves a specific
               | interest and agenda rather than being a good-faith, best-
               | effort attempt to convey truth.
               | 
               | It's a fundamental conflict in communications dating at
               | least to Plato and the philosophers vs. the sophists.
               | 
               | Propaganda is most effective when it wraps its intended
               | payload in an attractive, largely truthful message, and
               | acts to nudge its intended targets in a direction they're
               | inclined to go already.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophist
        
               | TigeriusKirk wrote:
               | The primary rule of successful propaganda is "Don't lie
               | about facts, control the interpretation."
               | 
               | False facts will get caught out. All you can do with an
               | interpretation is argue about it.
        
               | nautilius wrote:
               | You sure? Have you read/watched any news since 2016?
        
               | dredmorbius wrote:
               | There are various methods. Control is one. The Big Lie
               | another, direct attacks on trust and truth another. Sheer
               | overlwhelming and distraction as well.
        
               | hallarempt wrote:
               | You don't? It's crystal clear to me: that book was paid
               | for, as was its sequel, so industrialists could argue
               | that statistics from independent researchers were not to
               | be trusted. Whether or not the book was right or wrong is
               | not part of that contention.
        
               | bananabreakfast wrote:
               | Wait, are you trying to say it's _not_ wrong?
               | 
               | It was specifically paid for and used to cast widespread
               | doubt on smoking leading to lung cancer. It tried to
               | convince people that "the science isn't settled" when the
               | evidence was overwhelming.
               | 
               | It's an incredibly disingenuous and cynical piece of work
               | that posits truth does not really exist b/c all "experts"
               | are just lying to you with an agenda. Therefore, you
               | can't ever really know the truth, therefore keep smoking.
        
             | cesaref wrote:
             | I think that's taking things a little too far. How I see
             | it, Darrell Huff was a writer, not an academic, and he
             | wrote a number of books over the years about all sorts of
             | stuff.
             | 
             | I presume he got a bee in his bonnet about statistics at
             | some point, and wrote his 'How to lie with Statistics' and
             | because this became such a hit, it was _assumed_ he know
             | what he was talking about, and hence the interest from the
             | cigarette manufacturers, the senate etc. This in fact was a
             | mistake, and his credentials for appearing for the senate
             | should have been checked.
             | 
             | So, the key take away from the book for me is that
             | Statistics is hard, it's easy to confuse yourself or
             | produce dubious results, but i'd look elsewhere for
             | information about how to avoid pitfalls, and how to spot
             | dubious conclusions beyond the most simplistic manipulation
             | he points out.
        
             | Hokusai wrote:
             | Absolute certainty is impossible, that is not an argument
             | to not act. Completely agree.
        
           | coldtea wrote:
           | The US in particular seems to be full of either such naive
           | types (where enterprise, state, science, NGOs, law, etc can
           | do no wrong, and even if something happens, it's just some
           | individual bad apples at worst) or the other extreme
           | (pizzagate-aliens-they're coming for us conspiracy nuts).
        
           | ken47 wrote:
           | The scientific method is absolutely trustworthy. People,
           | however, are a different story.
        
         | downrightmike wrote:
         | If you live near a small airport, you are probably still being
         | poison by leaded fuel
         | https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/leaded-gas-wa...
        
         | twofornone wrote:
         | I really don't appreciate the way we retroactively demonize
         | various industries with hindsight that was not available in the
         | past.
         | 
         | The fact that leaded paint was known to be harmful does not
         | imply that it was known that burning leaded gas and dumping
         | lead into the giant atmosphere was also enough of a problem to
         | be concerned. That requires research to prove.
         | 
         | The same way that oil companies did not "know" that the
         | petroleum they were producing in the 80s was causing climate
         | change. That also took decades of research to confirm.
         | 
         | Meanwhile all of us benefited from both petroleum and leaded
         | gasoline. Im not apologizing on behalf of shitty corporate
         | behavior and dishonest research funding, but we should be
         | reasonable about accusations of negligence. Hindsight is 20/20.
        
         | bawolff wrote:
         | We've know much longer than that. From around 20 BC
         | 
         | "Water conducted through earthen pipes is more wholesome than
         | that through lead; indeed that conveyed in lead must be
         | injurious, because from it white lead [PbCO3, lead carbonate]
         | is obtained, and this is said to be injurious to the human
         | system. Hence, if what is generated from it is pernicious,
         | there can be no doubt that itself cannot be a wholesome body.
         | This may be verified by observing the workers in lead, who are
         | of a pallid colour; for in casting lead, the fumes from it
         | fixing on the different members, and daily burning them,
         | destroy the vigour of the blood; water should therefore on no
         | account be conducted in leaden pipes if we are desirous that it
         | should be wholesome. That the flavour of that conveyed in
         | earthen pipes is better, is shewn at our daily meals, for all
         | those whose tables are furnished with silver vessels,
         | nevertheless use those made of earth, from the purity of the
         | flavour being preserved in them" - Virtuvius VIII.6.10-11
        
       | Clubber wrote:
       | How does this square with the Flynn effect?
       | 
       | https://ourworldindata.org/intelligence
        
         | djur wrote:
         | Improved childhood nutrition outstrips the negative effect of
         | lead poisoning. IQs may have been lower than their potential
         | but still higher than in previous generations. Also, the
         | impacts of lead contamination are not evenly distributed
         | through populations.
        
       | dukeofdoom wrote:
       | I think most people are not aware how bad it used to be. I went
       | to India a couple years ago, and could taste the air pollution
       | from the traffic on the tip of my tongue. Its horrendous. Give
       | you headaches bad. I don't think they use catalytic converters
       | over there on majority of cars and motorcycles. Once electric
       | goes mainstream, it will seriously boost and extend the quality
       | of life of billions of people.
        
         | azinman2 wrote:
         | It still is bad in many parts of India.
        
       | troyvit wrote:
       | Thanks for the excuse. Adding to my LinkedIn profile (hey I _was_
       | born before 1990 you know) now.
        
         | tonyedgecombe wrote:
         | History - Grade D (due to leaded petrol).
        
       | skyde wrote:
       | << environmental lead levels from leaded gasoline are still
       | around in cities today, and cause continued neurotoxicity.<<
       | 
       | Can someone explain how you can be exposed to lead from << leaded
       | gasoline >> even if they are not used anymore?
       | 
       | Is it contaminating the city water or something like that?
        
         | tgtweak wrote:
         | Lead is heavy, even in trace quantities and after being
         | initially airborne. It will deposit in soil, stream beds and
         | sewers, particularly near roadways or transit systems. You will
         | also find platinum-group metals accumulated in the same areas
         | due to persistent catalytic converter atomization of running
         | vehicles. Disturbing the soils (wind, rain, driving,
         | construction, etc) will redistribute the tiny lead particles
         | into the atmosphere, despite their relative weight.
         | 
         | > The lead content in that study was measured in particles
         | collected either at the roadside or at rooftop height. The
         | chemical fingerprint closely matched that of road dust and top
         | soils, suggesting that contaminated soil is acting as a
         | reservoir for 20-year old lead pollution, which is continually
         | returned to the atmosphere when disturbed. The fact that lead
         | found at street and building height shared the same chemical
         | signature suggests airborne lead pollution is fairly well mixed
         | across London.
        
           | skyde wrote:
           | so if I understand correctly because of Water Cycle, we get
           | rain that contain lead.
           | 
           | But unless I eat dirt from the side of the road or drink rain
           | water I should be fine ?
        
             | tgtweak wrote:
             | You still have measurable lead levels in the air.
             | Essentially the rain and gravity brings it down to the
             | ground - mostly concentrated near roadways - where it mixes
             | with other dust and soil. From there it can then get cycled
             | again into the air by agitation. It is unlike CFC gasses
             | that tend to float up and are no longer present at ground
             | level shortly after they stop being introduced.
             | 
             | In this regard you still have lead present in the air in
             | varying degrees 20 years after it stopped being introduced.
             | The report cites 2% of 1990 levels nearly 20 years after it
             | was outlawed.
        
       | tonymet wrote:
       | I thought the science had been settled
        
         | mitigating wrote:
         | That's not how science works, nothing is ever settled.
        
       | wly_cdgr wrote:
       | It's ok. We would have been too powerful otherwise
        
       | selimthegrim wrote:
       | Trying to figure out where 1990 came from in the paper, it seem
       | unclear. Something NZ specific? Cohort turning 18?
        
         | Xophmeister wrote:
         | Erm... People born in 1990 are in their 30s.
        
           | selimthegrim wrote:
           | Yes but the original paper the thread references started
           | tracking people born in 1972-73
        
       | mythrwy wrote:
       | And plastics messed up the hormones of those born after?
       | 
       | But of course all this is dependent on the amount of exposure
       | which is individual.
        
       | davidw wrote:
       | As someone born in the 1970ies, all I can say is "ugh. bad."
        
         | mrweasel wrote:
         | I'm born in the early 1980ies. I could been an f-ing genius,
         | well actually I was lucky enough to grow up far outside any
         | city. One has to wonder if that has made any difference.
        
       | uncertainrhymes wrote:
       | The inventor repeatedly suffered lead poisoning, and many of the
       | workers died at the plant developing it.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
        
       | cjensen wrote:
       | Post hoc ergo propter hoc
        
       | leoc wrote:
       | I recommend this comment
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28502232 by
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=heymijo from the recent HN
       | discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28500508 of this
       | Smithsonian article on leaded gasoline
       | https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-... .
       | The MentalFloss article about Clair Patterson is especially good.
       | Pasting the comment in full (again, this is heymijo's work not
       | mine):
       | 
       | > Two beliefs became entrenched:
       | 
       | 1. that lead is natural to the human body, and
       | 
       | 2. that a poisoning threshold for lead existed
       | 
       | Robert Kehoe, working for GM, was the chief advocate for leaded
       | gasoline, and really the only person/lab doing research on lead
       | until Clair Patterson stumbled into it while measuring the age of
       | the earth. [0,1]
       | 
       | A modern equivalent might be if Facebook was the only
       | organization researching social media's impact on society, while
       | being able to set the paradigm/assumptions about said safety for
       | half a century.
       | 
       | So even when Patterson's research was published in 1965, it took
       | time to change the paradigm, and more time to phase out lead's
       | use.
       | 
       | Should anyone want to read a narrative about the intertwined
       | lives of Midgley, Patterson, Kehoe and lead, then this Mental
       | Floss article is a good read. [2]
       | 
       | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Kehoe
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Cameron_Patterson#Campai...
       | 
       | [2] https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/94569/clair-patterson-
       | sc...
        
         | leoc wrote:
         | This BBC article is also pretty good:
         | https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40593353 . In this discussion
         | ewhanley also linked a podcast episode which exceprts an
         | interview with Patterson:
         | https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/heavy...
        
       | postalrat wrote:
       | We are still discovering what lowered the IQ of children born
       | after 1990.
        
         | mfer wrote:
         | What is IQ? It's a measure that involves different categories.
         | Some of those categories have seen decline for decades while
         | others have seen an increase. Digging deeper can highlight more
         | detail. Sadly, little of this is documented in easy to find
         | places online.
        
         | j_walter wrote:
         | Social media
        
           | anthk wrote:
           | Literally. Social media and multitasking reduces your IQ
           | several points down.
        
           | Tenoke wrote:
           | This is such a populist response but I doubt you have any
           | citations backing that claim. Please post if you do.
        
             | irrational wrote:
             | The entire Republican party post 2016 would seem to be
             | proof of this assertion.
        
             | j_walter wrote:
             | https://neurogrow.com/what-social-media-does-to-your-brain/
             | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6502424/
             | 
             | For instance, the Internet's digital distractions and
             | supernormal capacities for cognitive offloading seem to
             | create a non-ideal environment for the refinement of higher
             | cognitive functions in critical periods of children and
             | adolescents' brain development. Indeed, the first
             | longitudinal studies on this topic have found that adverse
             | attentional effects of digital multi-tasking are
             | particularly pronounced in early adolescence (even compared
             | to older teens), and that higher frequency of Internet use
             | over 3 years in children is linked with decreased verbal
             | intelligence at follow-up, along with impeded maturation of
             | both grey and white matter regions.
        
               | Tenoke wrote:
               | This paper doesn't mention IQ even once. It just
               | discusses general effects it can have e.g. potential
               | problems with multi-tasking for some, possible beneficial
               | effects via increased mental stimulation for the elderly
               | etc. This is quite different than what you initially
               | proposed, not to mention inconclusive.
        
               | j_walter wrote:
               | What do you think cognitive decline means? IQ tests are
               | also called cognitive assessments and the accurate ones
               | (not the ones you take online) involve a lot of different
               | aspects of assessing how your brain is working. Many
               | psychologists don't like the term IQ because it's too
               | basic of a term...which is why many papers studying the
               | subject do not include it.
               | 
               | http://pictonpsychology.com.au/home-2/assessments/cogniti
               | ve-...
        
             | uoaei wrote:
             | I don't think you are using the word "populist" correctly.
        
         | na85 wrote:
         | Ok boomer
        
         | guruz wrote:
         | My bet is on seed oils :-/
         | 
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/StopEatingSeedOils/
         | 
         | (And also what others posted: plastic, social media etc.)
        
         | purple_ferret wrote:
         | plastics and plastic byproducts
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | johanneskanybal wrote:
         | You probably meant it as a joke (it was ok) but since half the
         | comments are not:
         | 
         | "The change in IQ scores has been approximately three IQ points
         | per decade. One major implications of this trend is that an
         | average individual alive today would have an IQ of 130 by the
         | standards of 1910, placing them higher than 98% of the
         | population at that time."
         | 
         | https://ourworldindata.org/intelligence
         | 
         | Personally few things triggers me as older generations bashing
         | younger, everything since ww2 has been easier the older you
         | where and they where the ones raising that younger generation.
         | Bit of typical not-getting-it.
        
           | spangry wrote:
           | There's some evidence, at least in first-world countries,
           | that more recently the Flynn effect is stagnating and even
           | reversing (i.e. average IQs are declining). See: https://en.w
           | ikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Possible_end_of_p...
        
           | q1w2 wrote:
           | I wonder if this has anything to do with the correlative
           | studies that showed that higher IQ individuals have less
           | children on average.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_and_intelligence
        
             | pedrosorio wrote:
             | higher IQ individuals having less children should lead to a
             | decrease of average IQ, whereas the parent cites a reported
             | 3 point increase per decade
        
               | BatFastard wrote:
               | As much as IQ tests want to say they test raw
               | intelligence, education plays a major role in how well
               | you score. And we are better educated as a society than
               | we were 100 years ago.
        
               | jVinc wrote:
               | When looking at IQ increase over time, you control for
               | education and socioeconomic factors, otherwise you're
               | just drawing conclusions from those factors.
        
           | beamatronic wrote:
           | If the world is the most peaceful it's ever been, and people
           | are the smartest they've ever been, what does that mean for
           | land and housing prices in a fiat economy?
        
         | jrootabega wrote:
         | Pity the generation whose elderly parents will have been raised
         | on leaded gasoline and whose children will have been raised on
         | smartphones.
        
         | vernie wrote:
         | Three rolling on the floor laughing emojis.
        
           | anyfoo wrote:
           | You get downvoted, and I understand why (HN does not like
           | most jokes and for good reasons and so on), but I think that
           | was actually a very appropriate reaction. Anyone having spent
           | time on Facebook knows exactly what, and in what way, you
           | meant that.
        
         | paulpauper wrote:
         | if everything is lowering IQs at all time, wouldn't it just be
         | reflected in the mean then? This would imply that IQ tests
         | would have to get easier over time to keep the average at 100.
        
           | mschuster91 wrote:
           | You would still have outliers that raise the mean - mostly
           | children from wealthy people who can afford to raise their
           | children on rural-ish areas, away from environmental
           | pollution (not just lead, but also particulate matter
           | dust/NOx from roads, industrial airborne toxins, and noise).
        
             | handrous wrote:
             | There aren't enough people so rich that they can live in
             | country estates and remote coastal "summer" residences all
             | year (so, neither parent has a job they need to be at)
             | while sending their kids to rural boarding schools to show
             | up in those stats, I expect. Plus you may have trouble
             | pinning down where they actually live most of the time,
             | even if you tried to account for them.
             | 
             | Beyond that, given rural areas have been subject to over a
             | century of severe brain-drain and intelligence is fairly
             | heritable, I'd expect that to overwhelm any benefits of
             | country living, if you tried to measure the effect for a
             | general rural population. You'd need a twin study or
             | something like that to sort it all out, i.e. a bunch of
             | twins where one grew up in the country, one in the city or
             | 'burbs or whatever you're comparing it to.
        
             | Tenoke wrote:
             | If people in rural area have higher IQs (which I doubt)
             | you'd expect to see a decrease as there's way less people
             | living ruraly today than before.
        
               | mitigating wrote:
               | Sometimes it's not how smart you are but if you can
               | utilize that. Many people can't afford higher education,
               | especially from rural areas, there's also stereotypes
               | based on accents and mannerisms that could prevent growth
               | at a company. People in rural areas are also farther away
               | from large companies and may be unable/unwilling to move.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | Imnimo wrote:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect (tests are re-
           | standardized to keep the mean at 100, but the un-standardized
           | mean actually increases over time)
        
             | paulpauper wrote:
             | then doesn't this counter the argument that IQs are falling
        
               | steerablesafe wrote:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox
        
               | Tenoke wrote:
               | It does. They are not. Or at least if some factors are
               | lowering it, other factors like better nutrition and
               | deleading etc. are more than counteracting it.
        
         | mschuster91 wrote:
         | If I were to guess, _stress_ is responsible for a large part of
         | it - stress is already known to have side effects in mental
         | health and life expectancy. I mean... my generation (as someone
         | born in 1991), what did we experience in our formative years?
         | Nothing but a _perpetual_ state of crisis:
         | 
         | - for Americans, the numerous wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and in
         | other countries - not to mention 9/11 itself which hit right as
         | many of my generation were in childhood and old enough to
         | understand what is going on in the news
         | 
         | - the financial crisis 2008ff which will leave those who
         | graduated around it with lifetime lower earnings
         | (https://www.pymnts.com/economy/2020/millennials-facing-
         | secon...)
         | 
         | - for the Europeans, the Euro crisis not soon after, same
         | effect if not worse, given the devastation it caused in
         | Southern Europe / PIIGS states
         | 
         | - for Europeans, dealing with the refugees that all the wars in
         | Africa and Asia caused, culminating in the 2015ff migration
         | crisis
         | 
         | - worldwide, anyone not completely ignorant already sees the
         | catastrophic effects of climate change and the _utter inaction_
         | of our politicians. We see that the world is figuratively
         | speeding with 200 km /h against a rapidly upcoming brick wall,
         | we see that instead of applying the brakes, the 1% of rich and
         | elites instead maxes out the throttle, and we _know_ that we
         | are going to take the beginning of its effects in 30 years and
         | our children face the full impact. Old people complain why the
         | youngest are on strike on Fridays instead of going to school -
         | well, they are aware that no amount of education can help them
         | if the planet is nearing inhabitability!
         | 
         | - and on top of that, we have a new crisis looming in the form
         | of Russia destabilizing Western governments by propaganda and
         | cyberwars, and China taking parts right out of the NSDAP
         | playbook and acting like a schoolyard bully in the Pacific
         | region all the way to Australia.
         | 
         | - did I already mention that my and the later generations
         | _will_ face significantly less earnings than the generation of
         | Boomers, and that income and wealth inequality also has risen
         | constantly over the last decades?
         | 
         | - as a result, home ownership is ever more inachievable, in
         | contrast to our parents we have to regularly be on the move and
         | uproot ourselves (thus, losing our meatspace social network)
         | every couple of years because the only way to achieve wage
         | raises is to move companies
         | 
         | - and on top of all of what I mentioned, we have the aftermath
         | of the Covid crisis that showed just how fundamentally broken
         | our societies and economies are, how incompetent and reckless
         | our politicians are, how _utterly ignorant_ politics and
         | society acted when it came to the needs of the young (we
         | sacrificed our youth for the at-risk population, and got
         | rewarded with anti-vaxxers and police smashing outdoor parties
         | as a thank-you), that wrecked entire economies beyond belief
         | and many of us lost people held dearly under sometimes
         | egregious circumstances!
         | 
         | All of this is a permanent mental load, in some cases
         | (especially when it comes to Covid) we are crossing into trauma
         | territory. I'm seriously interested in the first psychological
         | research dealing with stress influence of the last two decades.
        
           | syshum wrote:
           | My mentality seems to be very different from the norm,
           | because none of those things cause me any stress at all.
           | 
           | I think about them from a Policy stand point, I may recycle
           | or by a sustainable product because I know about climate
           | change, but I am not stressed over climate change
           | 
           | I am not stressed over wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, I oppose
           | them from a policy stand point, I am sad and empathetic for
           | the lives lost needlessly.
           | 
           | Even COVID, did not cause me any stress. I looked at the
           | data, I isolated myself when appropriate, wore a mask when
           | appropriate, and got vaccinated when appropriate I did not
           | have an existential crisis of the mind where I was in fear
           | that I was going to die, not at any point in the pandemic.
           | Certainly not to the point where I have seen others be; out
           | on the street screaming @ people that did not conform to
           | societal or government demands or claiming those people are a
           | "threat" to my life.
           | 
           | So I honestly have no frame of reference for people that have
           | this "permanent mental load" where all of these things cause
           | them soo much stress that is impacts their life.
        
             | tonyedgecombe wrote:
             | I've noticed my conservative friends have tended to be much
             | more fearful of this stuff. This was especially noticeable
             | during 9/11.
        
               | syshum wrote:
               | I dont think is a conservative / liberal thing.
               | 
               | Yes some conservatives have a greater reaction to 9/11,
               | and seem to be more suspectable to external threats /
               | rhetoric like Islamic terrorism, china, russia, etc.
               | 
               | However when it comes to things like the pandemic, or
               | internal threats like domestic terrorism, or "Trump" like
               | presidents, etc liberals seems to become just as unhinged
               | and stressed as the most extreme conservative does over
               | an Islamic Terror event...
               | 
               | If you are not seeing that likely because you are more
               | closely aligned with one group over the other.
               | 
               | I am close to neither, as I am more an individualist and
               | reject any type of collectivism from religion, to
               | government structures, to golf clubs, if it is a group I
               | want no part of it
        
               | tonyedgecombe wrote:
               | >I dont think is a conservative / liberal thing.
               | 
               | >Yes some conservatives have a greater reaction to 9/11,
               | and seem to be more suspectable to external threats /
               | rhetoric like Islamic terrorism, china, russia, etc.
               | 
               | So which is it? :)
               | 
               | >If you are not seeing that likely because you are more
               | closely aligned with one group over the other.
               | 
               | Well I'm in the UK which is a completely different world
               | when it comes to politics. Even then I don't really
               | identify with either of the main parties, I could pick
               | issues that I align with from both sides.
               | 
               | >If you are not seeing that likely because you are more
               | closely aligned with one group over the other.
               | 
               | Yet you reacted when I mentioned conservatives.
               | 
               | >I am close to neither, as I am more an individualist and
               | reject any type of collectivism from religion, to
               | government structures
               | 
               | That sounds fairly conservative to me.
        
               | syshum wrote:
               | >>So which is it? :)
               | 
               | Again it is applicable to both, you asserted it was only
               | conservatives that have this trait, I contend it is both.
               | 
               | >>Well I'm in the UK
               | 
               | I am sorry ;)
               | 
               | >>Yet you reacted when I mentioned conservatives.
               | 
               | No I continued the dialog we are having by responding to
               | your assertion and disagreeing where I felt your
               | argumentation was flawed
               | 
               | >>That sounds fairly conservative to me.
               | 
               | Depends on how you define your politics, if you do so on
               | a single axis Left/Right. Liberal / Conservative. Maybe.
               | 
               | I tend to look at politics more like the Political
               | Compass[1] for which I am dead center between left and
               | right, but I am extremely far down on the libertarian
               | scale
               | 
               | [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Political_Compass
        
           | selimnairb wrote:
           | Be thankful you weren't a child during the Reagan years. When
           | I was around 8 years-old, every time I saw jet contrails I
           | was convinced they were incoming USSR ICBMs.
        
             | tonyedgecombe wrote:
             | I was a teenager when Reagan came to power, the idea of a
             | nuclear holocaust was in our faces thanks to stuff like
             | this:
             | 
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0OPVi90-lg
        
             | q1w2 wrote:
             | As a child in the Reagan years, this was not a source of
             | stress for myself or any kid I knew.
        
               | brewdad wrote:
               | We were still doing nuclear attack drills in my
               | elementary school during the Reagan years, so yeah.
        
               | scruple wrote:
               | Same here. To make matters worse, I used to confuse the
               | tornado sirens in our town for air raid / civil defense
               | sirens when I was very young and I remember being quite
               | afraid of them, even when I knew they were routine tests,
               | until I finally understood the difference.
        
             | java-man wrote:
             | Incoming ICBMs would look _very_ different (something like
             | bright meteors).
             | 
             | Edit: I know, through the eyes of an 8 year old. My city
             | was a target of the U.S. nuclear missiles, so the I had the
             | same fear. Saw nuclear exposions all the time in my dreams.
             | 
             | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WagAKBuc_o
             | 
             | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7X89a531CY
        
               | Diederich wrote:
               | > 8 years-old
        
               | burnafter182 wrote:
               | Hey old friend,
               | 
               | Do you think, that having been through Cold-war era
               | conditioning and propaganda, that you're sort of
               | sensitized to the "modern Russia tropes"? I ask because,
               | well Russia seems like a shithole. A sort of noncompete
               | on the global scale outside their natural resource
               | stockpiles, but the US demagogues seem to like to point
               | fingers there and I see it as more or less a propaganda
               | tool. I suspect it's aimed at the generations that
               | experienced the cold war, but I'm inducing hard.
        
               | java-man wrote:
               | I think a lot of people miss the Cold War. There was this
               | far away, monolythic, scary enemy, that can be reliably
               | used to justify any amount of military expenses. And to a
               | certain point it was, of course, since up until 1953 they
               | were expecting a "world revolution".
               | 
               | The situation changed ever so slightly after 1985,
               | culminating in dissolution of USSR. Good riddance!
               | 
               | And now the same forces - or new incarnation of the same
               | forces - are working again to create that image of an
               | absolute enemy - on both sides. It's just so easy.
        
               | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
               | Thanks, but I don't really think that's the point at all.
               | 
               | The parent commenter relates that they were _8 years old_
               | and not a missile identification expert at that age; but
               | stressed about by something that actually was a realistic
               | fear.
        
               | tandr wrote:
               | Source?
        
               | java-man wrote:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WagAKBuc_o
        
             | indymike wrote:
             | I wonder if one big stressor is better than a thousand
             | small stressors.
        
             | gremIin wrote:
             | Except that was a hypothetical. The effects of climate
             | change are real, and irreversible.
        
           | VirusNewbie wrote:
           | My parents both grew up in poverty in disparate communities
           | and both experienced potential food shortages.
           | 
           | Later in his early twenties my father was drafted. They also
           | spent time doing bomb drills in elementary school because of
           | the cold war, nuclear fallout was an actual worry.
           | 
           | >did I already mention that my and the later generations will
           | face significantly less earnings than the generation of
           | Boomers, and that income and wealth inequality also has risen
           | constantly over the last decades?
           | 
           | I do worry about rising wealth inequality, but that is
           | largely a factor of deficit spending and needing the fed to
           | print money causing wealth transfer to the upper class.
           | Unfortunately, most young people are all for the government
           | spending even more money for various things which will only
           | exacerbate the issue.
           | 
           | >(we sacrificed our youth for the at-risk population),
           | 
           | I dunno, the largest cohort of covid positive cases has
           | always been the 20-30 age group by far.
        
             | cudgy wrote:
             | "Unfortunately, most young people are all for the
             | government spending even more money for various things
             | which will only exacerbate the issue."
             | 
             | The issue is not the amount of money that is spent; the
             | issue is for what the money is spent. So many articles
             | discussing the current bills in Congress simply stating the
             | amounts of money that are allocated in aggregate with
             | little if any discussion of the specific amounts within the
             | bill. My skeptical mind thinks this is purposely done to
             | mislead the public.
        
           | dionidium wrote:
           | This is extreme myopia. You could make a list like this for
           | _any_ given 40-year period and in the earlier periods disease
           | would be worse, healthcare would be worse, material living
           | standards would be worse, and life expectancy would be lower.
           | 
           | I think it's basically laughable to suggest that millennials
           | have experienced more stress than earlier generations. (Not
           | that it matters, but I'm an older millennial myself.)
           | 
           | Now, it genuinely might be the case that millennials are
           | subjectively more "stressed out" than their predecessors, but
           | that's a different claim. It's a claim I don't have any
           | trouble believing, but the cause is likely _widespread access
           | and attention_ to negative stressors (via social media, for
           | example), not the existence of a greater number of them.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | spfzero wrote:
           | "they are aware that no amount of education can help them if
           | the planet is nearing inhabitability"
           | 
           | Do you really believe that? That Earth will be uninhabitable
           | within the lifetime of a person alive today? Or their
           | grandchildren? No climate scientists argue anything remotely
           | close to that outcome.
        
             | mschuster91 wrote:
             | > That Earth will be uninhabitable within the lifetime of a
             | person alive today?
             | 
             | For people in Africa threatened by heat and drought (which
             | is _already_ making places uninhabitable and causing
             | migration!) and smaller islands, yes.
        
               | q1w2 wrote:
               | This is simply not accurate. There might be certain areas
               | that are more impacted than others, like the Maldives,
               | but there is no reasonable interpretation of
               | "uninhabitable" any scientist would attribute to Africa,
               | let alone Earth entirely.
        
               | spfzero wrote:
               | "places" uninhabitable is not the same as the planet
               | being uninhabitable, as the parent post claimed. _Parts_
               | of the planet have been uninhabitable for ages.
        
               | burnafter182 wrote:
               | How many climate predictions have been correct? How many
               | predictions _in general_ have, a posteriori been right?
               | This is _multivariate_ , not necessarily a question of
               | the effects of climate itself, but every conceivable
               | effect in a long chain, including further human
               | intervention and non-linearities in global climate
               | behavior that are yet-to-be observed and no doubt a
               | lengthy slew of other factors. But we're not allowed to
               | talk about speculation, right?
        
             | burnafter182 wrote:
             | Well, that depends on the human reaction. Think of
             | screaming "fire" in a movie theatre. Panicked rush out,
             | egregious disregard for human life and safety for the sake
             | of self-preservation. Consider our theatre patrons are
             | armed, guns, knives, nuclear weapons, economic warfare. I'm
             | not saying there is necessarily going to be world
             | destruction, but it isn't-not on the menu.
        
       | young_unixer wrote:
       | > Millennials are the first to be born with unleaded gas.
       | 
       | Nope. Many developing countries still had it by 2001, and only
       | started banning after international campaign from the UN [1].
       | 
       | [1] https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/08/1098792
        
       | nazgulnarsil wrote:
       | An even bigger contamination bombshell might be in the cards:
       | https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/10/19/a-chemical-hunger-i...
        
       | 0xbadc0de5 wrote:
       | Fun fact, the inventor of leaded gasoline, Thomas Midgley Jr.,
       | also invented chloroflourocarbons (CFC's). See:
       | https://interestingengineering.com/thomas-midgley-jr-the-man...
        
         | ngold wrote:
         | Reminds me of the German that invented pulling nitrogen out of
         | the air to be used in fertilizers, saving hundreds of millions
         | of lives. WW1 rolls around and he invents gas warfare.
        
         | mhh__ wrote:
         | CFCs were really important for making fridges safe, though
         | right?
        
         | zionic wrote:
         | He was also strangled to death by his own bed-hoist invention.
        
           | datavirtue wrote:
           | That is awesome
        
             | dang wrote:
             | Can you please stop posting flamebait and unsubstantive
             | comments? We tried unbanning you awhile ago, and for the
             | most part it has worked ok, but if you keep this up we're
             | going to have to ban you again.
             | 
             | If you wouldn't mind reviewing
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking
             | the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be
             | grateful.
        
             | tgtweak wrote:
             | Are you in the celebrating death camp or not?
        
               | oats wrote:
               | There's a certain level of bastardhood at which it
               | becomes hard to feel sympathy for someone's demise. I
               | don't know which side of the line Thomas Midgley Jr. is
               | on, but he's reeeaaal close to it.
        
               | tgtweak wrote:
               | Do you think he intentionally invented it to harm people?
               | I don't think you can logically position that it is good
               | for a person to die but not those which they indirectly
               | (and likely involuntarily) harmed.
               | 
               | CFCs are a pretty important invention even today and
               | leaded paint and fuel probably seemed like a good idea at
               | the time since no evidence suggested otherwise for a long
               | while after it's introduction and commercialization.
               | Unless he concealed information about known dangers, I
               | think it's illogical to fault him to the point of
               | celebrating his untimely death due to it.
        
         | BoxOfRain wrote:
         | This article's understandably very critical of the man but is
         | there much in the way of hard evidence he knew just how
         | dangerous these inventions were and wilfully ignored the risks?
         | Geninely asking, it just feels like the article is a bit of a
         | hatchet job.
         | 
         | Nobody's disputing that his inventions were awful in the long
         | run for humanity and the Earth but it seems a little harsh to
         | criticise someone for lacking the gift of prophecy. As far as
         | I'm aware we only figured out how harmful CFCs were for the
         | environment in the 1970s for example.
        
           | mcguire wrote:
           | " _Facing sceptical reporters at a press conference in
           | October 1924, Thomas Midgley dramatically produced a
           | container of tetraethyl lead - the additive in question - and
           | washed his hands in it._
           | 
           | " _" I'm not taking any chance whatever," Midgley declared.
           | "Nor would I... doing that every day."_
           | 
           | " _Midgley was - perhaps - being a little disingenuous. He
           | had recently spent several months in Florida, recuperating
           | from lead poisoning._ "
           | (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40593353)
           | 
           | I believe after that press conference he spent several more
           | months in Europe detoxing. High-concentration exposure was
           | known to be dangerous (" _On the Thursday of the week before
           | Midgley 's press conference, at a Standard Oil plant in New
           | Jersey, a worker named Ernest Oelgert started hallucinating.
           | By Friday, he was running around the laboratory, screaming in
           | terror. On Saturday, with Oelgert dangerously unhinged, his
           | sister called the police. He was taken to hospital and
           | forcibly restrained. By Sunday, he was dead. Within the week,
           | so were four of his colleagues - and 35 more were in
           | hospital. Only 49 people worked there._") and quite a few
           | people were concerned about long-term, low-level exposures.
        
           | 0xbadc0de5 wrote:
           | There is plenty of evidence that he at least new that TEL was
           | extremely toxic - Midgley himself was poisoned by it. Despite
           | this knowledge, he went on to insist it was safe for the
           | public. As for CFC's, the evidence would suggest he did not
           | know of their effects on atmospheric ozone. My reading of the
           | article left me with the impression that Midgley's work on
           | TEL and subsequent marketing was enough to condemn. His work
           | on CFC's appears to be a very unfortunate follow-up.
        
       | throwaway59553 wrote:
       | I guess today IQ is real and not fake science.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | We've banned this account for posting flamewar comments and
         | using HN primarily for ideological battle. That's not allowed
         | here, regardless of ideology, because it destroys what this
         | site is supposed to be for.
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
         | RandallBrown wrote:
         | I think IQ is one of those measures that's okay for the general
         | population but pretty bad for individuals.
         | 
         | A lowering trend of IQs over the years means a lot more than
         | one random person taking a test.
        
         | coolspot wrote:
         | IQ tests are still banned in California for certain kids.
         | 
         | https://www.kqed.org/news/11781032/a-landmark-lawsuit-aimed-...
        
           | ravenstine wrote:
           | California's education system is also below average, so
           | evidence that their children are also reduced in IQ as a
           | result would be pretty unflattering.
        
           | throwaway59553 wrote:
           | >Based on the test results, black students statewide -- young
           | Darryl included -- wound up categorized as "educable mentally
           | retarded" at disproportionate rates: 27% labeled that way in
           | 1968 were black -- even though black students made up less
           | than 9% of the student body.
           | 
           | So there are differences in the distribution of IQ among all
           | the people in a Planet with very different environments?
           | 
           | Rubbish racist pseudo-science. We all know evolution stopped
           | at the neck line.
        
       | sul_tasto wrote:
       | the comments on this tweet are really disturbing. lead
       | contamination is still a problem, and it's being ignored.
        
         | thinkcontext wrote:
         | An Update on Childhood Lead Poisoning (2017)
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5645046/
         | 
         | > As many as 500,000 US children (2.5%) under 6 years have BLLs
         | >=5 ug/dL. Each lead-exposed child costs an estimated $5600 in
         | medical and special educational services.7 Lead exposure-
         | related cognitive impairments cost an estimated $50.9 billion
         | annually in lost US economic productivity.6
        
       | datavirtue wrote:
       | I demand reparations. My intellect is my most valuable asset.
        
         | timbit42 wrote:
         | ...or would have been.
        
       | aaron695 wrote:
       | This tweet and it's following thread is a lie.
       | 
       | It has no sources just random journal articles about lead.... so
       | as fucking expected and totally HN, just believe random stuff,
       | wank wank. Can't be challenged because there's nothing to
       | challenge. And the dig at NASCAR is pretty on topic for HN, no
       | one with an average IQ or better would believe a NASCAR track
       | would actually make a difference and you couldn't _starkly_ see
       | it in other places. But whatever, hahaha NASCAR people are stupid
       | and science proved it.
       | 
       | Millennial's in the West actually have average IQ's, what's
       | concerning is they had less of many things we know lower IQs so
       | something big hammered them to stop these gains. No one is sure
       | what.
       | 
       | There is evidence removing lead from fuel harmed Millennials.
       | 
       | Micro dosing through leaded fuel didn't reduce IQs but it might
       | have increased impulsiveness. It's no joke the Millennials
       | onwards might be boring. It is very existential, boring people
       | are happier. But it still feels depressing we now have 30 years
       | of boring people and soon it will just be humans as a species....
       | boring.
        
       | NoGravitas wrote:
       | This explains why I belong to DENSA, the low-IQ society.
        
       | Angostura wrote:
       | Imagine how intelligent I _could have been_
        
       | thesausageking wrote:
       | Given all of the research in how much harm leaded gas does, it's
       | crazy that the US still allows it for planes and race cars.
        
         | TimTheTinker wrote:
         | According to the FAA, "TEL has not yet been banned for use in
         | avgas, because no operationally safe alternative is currently
         | available."
        
           | deepsun wrote:
           | Well, they can outlaw operating older private planes. Newer
           | private planes often use kerosene (aka Jet-A) fuel, just like
           | airlines.
           | 
           | But that would be unjust. Imagine your car suddenly gets
           | outlawed.
        
             | unclenoriega wrote:
             | They could be outlawed non-suddenly.
        
               | detaro wrote:
               | So many things were making it slowly less and less viable
               | through extra costs/requirements would've likely been the
               | better plan, but instead nothing changes until at some
               | point there is enough pressure for change, and then
               | there's complaints its "so suddenly". (I think with Avgas
               | that has happened a tiny bit through storage regulations
               | - its sufficiently more annoying to keep around that some
               | places don't offer it anymore, making it a tiny bit less
               | attractive for plane buyers)
        
               | mitigating wrote:
               | Then people will just complain it's sudden when it gets
               | close to the deadline.
        
             | mitigating wrote:
             | I think deciding if something is unjust should factor in
             | the impact. If someone has a 1990 Honda Civic that is their
             | only means of getting to work and suddenly it's illegal due
             | to pollution that's one thing. However if someone's private
             | jet needs an expensive upgrade then that's another impact.
        
               | bananabreakfast wrote:
               | Wrong airplane. Jets use JET-A (no lead) not AVGAS
        
             | brandmeyer wrote:
             | Even cheap used small private planes cost > $100k. Since
             | they are exclusively owned by wealthy people, it is a
             | political impossibility to outlaw them.
        
               | Eugr wrote:
               | Most of the planes flying were made in 60's and 70's.
               | Most of them can be bought below $100K. Most owners of
               | 100LL burning planes are middle class. Wealthy people fly
               | jets or at least turboprops and burn Jet-A.
        
               | toomuchtodo wrote:
               | We could buy them up and scrap them as their value
               | declines while also working to outlaw 100LL at the ~4000
               | FBOs in the US that still carry the fuel. At some point,
               | demand decline encounters an inflection point where it's
               | no longer economically feasible ("death spiral") to
               | continue to provide 100LL fuel to FBOs.
               | 
               | Cash for clunkers sort of thing.
        
               | brandmeyer wrote:
               | Cash for clunkers was only tenable because the recipients
               | of the cash were predominantly the working poor. Even
               | then, economic conservatives howled at the program for
               | its destruction of capital.
        
               | Scoundreller wrote:
               | The first recipients were new car buyers. Hardly the
               | working poor.
               | 
               | You could argue those buying new cars bought clunkers
               | from the working poor for their above-market trade-in
               | value, but that only works for the poor if they didn't
               | need to replace that clunker because everything used went
               | up in price.
        
               | deepsun wrote:
               | > exclusively owned by wealthy people
               | 
               | You are underinformed. Most Cessna owners I know, are
               | middle-income fanatics, usually co-owning a single plane.
        
               | mitigating wrote:
               | I looked into the cost of flight lessons in a small
               | plane, the cost of using an airport runway, and fuel. It
               | was extremely expensive to me and I make 6 figures.
        
               | Eugr wrote:
               | There is no cost of using an airport runway, at least in
               | the US...
        
               | bananabreakfast wrote:
               | Then you have very different priorities than an airplane
               | owner. You pay for plenty of things that are extremely
               | expensive, you just choose different things.
        
               | mrtranscendence wrote:
               | I too make six figures, and I don't think I do anything
               | as expensive as completing flight school and co-owning a
               | Cessna. I mean, my house is more expensive than that, I
               | guess, and my car is (barely) more expensive than flight
               | school might be, but surely amateur pilots have houses
               | and cars too. About the only expense I have that might
               | come close to serious flying as a hobby would be pets,
               | but outside of the one time we had to pay for chemo for
               | our dog it's not _that_ expensive.
        
             | marcosdumay wrote:
             | The larger private planes use kerosene, but smaller planes
             | use gasoline just like they always did.
             | 
             | The difference is that new gasoline planes can work with
             | unleaded.
        
             | ploika wrote:
             | A version of that for cars is common enough actually.
             | Several countries and US states have road worthiness tests
             | that include minimum (maximum?) emissions standards that
             | must be met. The car I drive will probably ultimately fail
             | on emissions as standards rise over the next few years.
        
               | topkai22 wrote:
               | I live in a county with emissions standards. Vehicles
               | over 25 years old are exempt. There are reasonable ways
               | to implement rising standards by exempting older ones.
        
               | brewdad wrote:
               | I've lived in two places that required emissions testing.
               | In both, the vehicles were held to the standard in place
               | at the time it was built, not the current highest
               | standard.
        
             | mrfusion wrote:
             | Don't they need new engines at some point anyway?
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | Yeah, but you would need a new type certificate if the
               | model of the engine is different from the version that
               | was certified. Not to mention, you'd need a lead-free-
               | compatible engine that physically fits into the plane.
        
               | jandrese wrote:
               | I know some enthusiasts have been retrofitting with
               | Subaru boxer engines with some success, but they end up
               | with an X registration.
        
               | JorgeGT wrote:
               | True! But for many popular airframe/engine combinations
               | there are companies which hold supplemental type
               | certificates (STCs) for the conversion, see for instance
               | Petersen Aviation who have a dedicated website for STCs
               | covering conversion to auto fuel:
               | https://www.autofuelstc.com/
        
           | detaro wrote:
           | Kind of needs a caveat: ... for engines not designed to
           | safely operate with other fuels. I.e. it's not that we need
           | Avgas 100LL to make piston-engined planes possible, we just
           | have a lot of plane engines around that need it. (and one can
           | argue that industry has sat on the problem a bit, because why
           | change as long as 100LL is readily available. (and making
           | 100% compatible fuel replacements indeed appears to be
           | difficult, as far as I know there is only one that has any
           | kind of permits for one plane type, and that also has
           | somewhat nasty additives - so changing the engines is the
           | thing to do)
        
             | jandrese wrote:
             | The blame lies at least partially on Lycoming, who
             | developed a nice engine in the 60s and then apparently
             | fired their R&D department.
             | 
             | This is a little unfair, but only very little. The engines
             | are primitive by modern standards because the company is
             | wildly conservative in their design philosophy. The engines
             | are quite reliable if run within their design envelope and
             | maintained according to the manual, but it requires
             | considerably more maintenance per operation hour than a
             | modern car engine and most modern car engines are even more
             | reliable when properly maintained.
        
               | MaxBarraclough wrote:
               | Some Lycoming engines run fine on the right unleaded
               | fuel.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas#UL94_(formerly_94UL)
        
             | NordSteve wrote:
             | Last summer GAMA received a supplemental type certificate
             | for a 100LL replacement, called G100UL. The STC covers
             | certain Lycoming O-320, O-360, and IO-360 piston engines,
             | which are commonly used in light aircraft.
             | 
             | https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-
             | news/2021/july/27/ga...
        
               | jzawodn wrote:
               | s/GAMA/GAMI/
        
             | citizenpaul wrote:
             | Its almost entirely small hobby planes 2-4 passenger.
             | Almost none of those planes have any real reason to still
             | exist. Its basically rich or upper middle people that don't
             | care they are literally poisoning people while they tool
             | around with their hobby.
        
               | throckmortra wrote:
               | How is avgas poisoning people?
        
               | throwaway946513 wrote:
               | via the leaded gasoline it uses. Same as how leaded
               | gasoline in cars poisoned people. Same premise, different
               | vehicle.
        
               | throckmortra wrote:
               | From the exhaust or skin contact?
        
               | jimmyswimmy wrote:
               | You're not entirely wrong. Aviation is a hobby that is
               | difficult to engage in if you don't have money. But
               | flying those same planes is exactly where your commercial
               | pilots are trained. It takes 1500 flight hours (certainly
               | this number is wrong but too lazy to look up the current
               | ATP minimum) to be eligible for the license to fly
               | passengers on commercial airlines. A substation portion
               | of those hours are as paid instructors.
        
               | anonfornoreason wrote:
               | The negative externalities of your passions, your work,
               | your hobbies, your personal life are currently poisoning
               | thousands of people. You are currently typing on a
               | computer built with rare earth elements mined in poor
               | countries with slave labor. You probably eat shrimp on
               | occasion, literally harvested by people forced into
               | literal slavery, trapped on a boat. You likely enjoy
               | looking at and thinking about crypto, which is currently
               | mined with massive amounts of compute powered by coal
               | plants, which emit far more toxic byproducts than any
               | amount of general aviation.
               | 
               | No one is a saint. Regulating away all the hobbies out
               | there to minimize the impact would probably result in
               | some sort of violent revolution, if it could even be
               | done.
        
               | Thetawaves wrote:
               | Small single engine planes == hobby? No. The vast
               | majority of the hours flown in these planes are for
               | commercial purposes. If you are going to focus your ire
               | anywhere - it should be on these money making enterprises
               | that don't (have to) upgrade their infrastructure.
        
               | jaywalk wrote:
               | >Almost none of those planes have any real reason to
               | still exist.
               | 
               | I hope someone comes along and shits on your hobby, too.
               | It has no real reason to exist, who cares that it
               | provides you enjoyment?
        
               | wbsss4412 wrote:
               | Thank you.
               | 
               | I myself enjoy hunting humans, as they are the most
               | dangerous of game. Yet I am constantly accosted at my
               | dinner parties, it's truly intolerable. I don't see where
               | these people get the nerve to act so holier than thou. We
               | all have our vices.
               | 
               | (/s, obviously)
        
               | andrepd wrote:
               | My gardening hobby does not involve poisoning my
               | neighbour's children. Might be a tad different, pal.
        
         | purple_ferret wrote:
         | Household lead paint is still allowed in much of the world.
         | India only banned* it in 2016(it is still poorly regulated, so
         | still widely used). China the same in 2020.
         | 
         | *reduced to max level to 90 ppm
        
           | dredmorbius wrote:
           | Note that _concentrations matter_ , that there is a dose-
           | response curve (more lead => greater impacts), and that the
           | quantities of lead in common products such as paint were
           | _insane_.
           | 
           | Lead wasn't simply some trace component of paint, but _was up
           | to half by weight_ (dried), or 500,000 ppm in the US (and
           | probably comparable _if not worse_ elsewhere:
           | 
           |  _White house paint contained up to 50% lead before 1955.
           | Federal law lowered the amount of lead allowable in paint to
           | 1% in 1971. In 1977, the Consumer Products Safety Commission
           | limited the lead in most paints to 0.06% (600 ppm by dry
           | weight). Since 2009, the lead allowable in most paints is now
           | 0.009%. Paint for bridges and marine use may contain greater
           | amounts of lead._
           | 
           | https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/safety_standards.
           | ..
           | 
           | Leaded petrol had on the order of 0.5 -- 1 g/l lead, again,
           | _not_ trace amounts, which were discharged directly into the
           | air. Much settled out relatively quickly, within a few
           | hundred metres, as lead is heavy. Still, lead permeated
           | cities and land adjoining roadways and expressways. And still
           | does. Remediation is expensive, natural remediation takes
           | centuries.
           | 
           | At 90 ppm, India's regulations seem to impose a maximum upper
           | bound, and controls for incidental introduction. Given that
           | _total_ elimination is impossible, setting a maximum
           | standard.
           | 
           | The US standard is also 90 ppm:
           | 
           | https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manufacturing/Business-
           | Educat...
        
             | throwaway946513 wrote:
             | Partly though, if I'm remembering correctly, is that no
             | amount of lead is considered 'safe'. Obviously that's very
             | difficult, and many people will be exposed to lead at some
             | point. End goal should be to minimize, and make the ppm as
             | near zero as possible.
        
               | dredmorbius wrote:
               | Again: it's a matter of quantity, background or other
               | source rates, costs of reduction, measurement capability,
               | and alternative harms, etc.
               | 
               |  _All_ quality standards are specified on some acceptable
               | deviation. _The goal is to not exceed the standard._
               | 
               | Equipment, water supply, source materials, packaging,
               | extant air containation (if in an area in which, say,
               | leaded fuels remain in use), etc., might all contribute
               | to trace contamination. If you have an interest in the
               | reasoning / conditions, rulemaking hearings and evidence
               | likely refer to this.
               | 
               | I'm not about to dive into this, but if you have a
               | genuine interest, the US regulation is in 16 CFR 1303.1,
               | created in 1977, amended in 2008. Hearings reports are
               | likely available and will have scientific, industry, and
               | public-interest statements.
               | 
               | https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-
               | II/subchapter-...
               | 
               | https://www.cpsc.gov/Regulations-Laws--Standards
        
             | hallarempt wrote:
             | When I was a teen, copper and tin were too expensive, and I
             | was a bright, precocious teen sculptor. So picture eleven,
             | twelve year old me melting lead in a crucible, taking the
             | crucible in flaking asbestos gloves and pouring it into my
             | casting form. I was a productive little sculptor, too,
             | making many pieces a year.
        
         | comeonseriously wrote:
         | I'm not. There's lots of money in those two industries.
        
         | mrfusion wrote:
         | I just looked at a house next to a small airport. I was
         | wondering about the lead exposure?
        
           | thesausageking wrote:
           | It's a concern, especially if you have kids.
           | 
           | > children living within 1.5 miles of the Reid-Hillview
           | Airport have elevated levels of lead in their blood, and that
           | the problem gets much worse for those who live closer to or
           | downwind from the airport. > ...children under the age of 18
           | living close to Reid-Hillview had blood lead levels over 1.8
           | micrograms per deciliter. In 3.2% of the children surveyed,
           | that number was as high as 3.5 micrograms, and in 1.7% of
           | children it was 4.5 micrograms. Average baseline lead levels
           | in children across the U.S. are closer to 0.84 micrograms.
           | 
           | https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2021/08/06/new-study-
           | finds-l...
        
           | opwieurposiu wrote:
           | The only way to know for sure is to test a few soil samples
           | from the yard and dust samples from inside the house. Also
           | test the water, especially if it is well water.
           | 
           | If you plan to have kids there, the test might be worth it
           | for your peace of mind. If there are no kids I would not
           | bother.
        
             | bell-cot wrote:
             | This, plus:
             | 
             | - Which way does the prevailing wind blow? (Toward your
             | prospective house, or away?)
             | 
             | - If the airport had leaky underground storage tanks, in
             | which directions might the gas (& lead) seep?
        
               | jimmyswimmy wrote:
               | Also, a quick way to estimate local prevailing winds near
               | an airport is to look at the runway direction. Planes
               | like to land into head winds so if there's only a single
               | runway, those winds are mostly in one direction down the
               | runway.
        
               | Scoundreller wrote:
               | But which direction???
        
       | TimMurnaghan wrote:
       | Nice try millenials. But the boomers grew up in times of lower
       | car ownership and general road traffic - so while there was
       | leaded petrol - the exposure to lead wasn't necessarilly so high.
       | What do we call the generation of around 1980? Late Gen-X?
       | They're probably the ones at most risk.
        
         | pmlnr wrote:
         | > What do we call the generation of around 1980
         | 
         | We call it people born around 1980.
        
         | mrtranscendence wrote:
         | > What do we call the generation of around 1980? Late Gen-X?
         | 
         | Xennials[1]. I've also heard "elder millennial".
         | 
         | [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xennials
        
           | handrous wrote:
           | Ah, my generation! The ones whose video games, at least
           | during our elementary school years, were good enough to be
           | really fun, but also bad enough that we'd eventually get
           | bored of them and go ride bikes or hit each other with sticks
           | or some other healthy activity, all of our own volition.
           | 
           | I remain tentatively skeptical of "saving" features in video
           | games. They may be one of the great social ills of our time.
           | Going back to the beginning if you lose may have been a
           | _healthy_ kind of frustrating.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | timbit42 wrote:
         | 1883 - 1900 Lost Generation
         | 
         | 1901 - 1927 Greatest Generation
         | 
         | 1928 - 1945 Silent Generation
         | 
         | 1945 - 1963 Me Generation aka. Baby Boomers
         | 
         | 1964 - 1980 Generation X aka. Thirteeners
         | 
         | 1980 - 1997 Generation Y aka. Millennials
         | 
         | 1997 - 2010 Generation Z aka. Centennials
        
       | ewhanley wrote:
       | There is a great recent episode of Radiolab that discusses how
       | pervasive lead is in the environment. tl;dr the background level
       | is so high that calibrated measurement of specific samples is
       | challenging.
       | 
       | https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/heavy...
        
         | leoc wrote:
         | This MentalFloss article (via
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=heymijo ) is good:
         | https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/94569/clair-patterson-sc...
        
       | KoftaBob wrote:
       | I wouldn't be surprised if we find out something similar a decade
       | or two from now about phthalates in plastics and personal care
       | products, except for their effects on hormone levels rather than
       | IQ.
        
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