A Lead-Laden World?

AN OFFICER in the U.S. Air Force went through sudden and unexplainable personality changes. He lost 30 pounds [14 kg] and could not sleep. His wife became anemic and dehydrated. What was happening? Dishes the two had bought in another country were improperly glazed. They were leaking lead into the couple’s food.

In another case, a baby girl had almost stopped growing and could not digest her food properly. Why? The tap water in her home was contaminated with lead. A two-year-old boy got lead poisoning from the soil in his own backyard. Gasoline fumes from a nearby highway had tainted the dirt with lead.

How Serious a Problem?

Man has known for centuries that lead is poisonous. Some historians even think that lead poisoning contributed to the downfall of the Roman Empire. The Romans’ extensive use of lead in their wine vessels, utensils, cosmetics, and especially their wine, may have caused widespread physical and mental problems.

What about today? “In a sense we are all lead poisoned,” answers Dr. Donald Louria in the Cecil Textbook of Medicine. People of today’s industrialized nations have about a hundred times more lead in their bodies than did people living before industrialization. However, doctors assure Awake! that thus far this has not been proved to be the cause of widespread illness in the population in general.

Lead is particularly dangerous to children. They absorb it more readily than adults do, and it can impair their mental growth and abilities, perhaps permanently. For instance, each year lead poisoning may lower the intelligence of some 140,000 American children by up to five IQ points.

Low levels of lead have seeped into millions of households through the drinking water because lead pipes were commonly used until the 1940’s. Even copper pipes used since then were connected with solder containing lead, although a few years ago in some places laws were passed requiring lead-free solder. Water fountains in schools and offices have been noted as sources of lead. If the local water is corrosive, it will dissolve lead in plumbing and carry it out through the tap and into your glass.

Soil and dust also carry lead. Crumbling paint chips and industrial smelters of lead have played a part. A big culprit is gasoline. In the 1920’s, lead was added to gasoline to prevent engine knocking. So cars and factories have spewed millions of tons of lead into the air, and it has settled into the dust and dirt of our planet. Lead-bearing dust may even come to rest on some of our food.

Any Hope?

In the 1960’s and ’70’s, a clear alarm was sounded against the dangers of lead, and many important reforms have since been enacted. The lead content in paint has been greatly reduced. A number of countries have made progress in phasing out leaded gasoline​—with marked results. In the United States, for instance, the lead level in human blood went down, on the average, by over a third. In Europe, it is predicted that almost all gasoline there will be lead-free by the year 2000.

As a result of such reforms, cases of drastic lead poisoning have gone down. Why, then, is there still cause for alarm? Because scientists now see as dangerous the levels of lead that they once considered safe. And by no means has man stopped putting lead into the environment. The FDA Consumer cites one recent report that estimates that man still spews 400,000 tons of lead into the atmosphere every year.

What about the future? Will man continue to lead-coat the world? Happily, we do not have to wait despairingly for humanity to repair the vast damage it has done to the earth. Man’s ever-reliable Creator promises to “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”​—Revelation 11:18.

But what about now? What are some practical steps you can take to safeguard yourself and your family?

Ways to Protect Yourself

Water: If you have solid reasons to be concerned about your tap water, you may want to have it tested. If your house pipes are leaching lead into the water, a special filter or a distillation system may be needed to remove it. Standard charcoal filters do not remove lead. Still, you can reduce the lead content by letting the water run for several minutes, especially after it has been sitting in the pipes for a time. Do not use hot tap-water for drinking or for food preparation, as it carries more lead.

Food: Earthenware dishes with lead-based glazes are a hazard when they have not been fired at high enough temperatures. Since many countries do not have laws governing their ceramic production, exercise caution if you buy pottery from such a country. Using earthenware to store food is more dangerous than using it to serve food, since more lead leaks out with time. If you suspect a ceramic item of lead contamination, you may want to use it just as a decoration and not for food storage.

Washing fruits and vegetables removes about half of the lead dust that may have settled on them. And good nutrition is another preventive measure. A good balanced diet normally supplies the proper levels of zinc, iron, and calcium, and these can help keep down the body’s lead levels. Take care that your children do not put any lead products, such as lead toys and paint dust, in the mouth. They should not be playing where lead dust could be ingested.

Thus, while we anticipate a permanent solution to the lead problem in God’s new world, there are some immediate steps we can take to protect ourselves.