On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 13:59:28 -0330, "Terry"
wrote:


A good point, this Lead free is so much BS driven by the nutters. IF
lead solvency is such a big problem, what about lead in car wheel
weights, every time it rains, it washes over the weights then straight
into the waste water system. And many many roofs in Europe, the rain
washes over the lead sheathing then into the waste water.

And lead water distribution pipes in much of the UK.

There's precious little evidence its a problem. It's just the stupid
EU has this "precautionary principle" enshrined that more or less
states that if you think something may be a problem ,you should act,
even although there is no evidence to support it.

Barry Lennox

Maybe? But the more prosperous Romans used lead drink containers and look
where it got them. Quite a few of the most rich (Emperors etc.) went mad!
Lead fumes are supposed to be bad too; see also unleaded gasoline!

Many UK cities used lead water pipes for the past 150 years, much of
this has now been replaced, but during WW2 many of the records were
lost and a lot of piping in some cities is still lead. The UK EPA is
well aware of this and monitor the blood/lead level in the cities
known to be the worst. No significant amounts have ever been found, at
least due to this means of ingress. In the very worst cities, they add
a small amount of lime to the water to keep it slightly alkaline, thus
ensuring that no lead leaching can occur.

Yes, there is no doubt that Tetra Ethyl Lead is very toxic, metallic
lead is nothing like that. The key issue of any poison is
"bio-availability" and metallic lead is not that easy to get into your
system.

There has been some very well documented studies on landfills in the
Silicon Valley area (that for 30-40 yrs had more than the usual
proportion of solder and lead dumped into them) and lead leachate is
not a problem. Much to the disgust of the EPA who went in there like
screaming lunatics.

And the same applies around the old lead mines in Leadville and other
communities in CO.

There simply is no evidence that lead leaching is a problem.

However, many of the substitute solders for "lead-free" are more toxic
than 63:37 lead-tin.

The EU is the problem rather than lead. The world will one day wake up
to this giant hoax by the masters of bureacracy!


On a similar ecological note; we still have the well for household water
supply that we dug 35 years ago; before a municipal water supply became
available, and when there were fewer neighbours.
That water still tests 'good', bacteriologically; but in the intervening
years neighbours have used herbicides and pesticides, often just to try and
get a 'greener' lawn! Or just to get rid of dandelions, which when young are
edible btw.
I wouldn't drink the stuff now! Oddly our grass+clover hardly ever tended to
(well I did stick some limestone on it a few years ago, mainly because
someone gave it to me!), only gets cut occasionally, and looks fine!
Most landfills are/must be toxic pits of potential pollution, complete with
the lead from old car batteries, tyres, rotting furniture, old vinyl etc.
etc. ... you name it!
And the Great Lakes, biggest, now polluted, freshwater resources in the
world? And next the oceans? Polluted? From run offs?
Shame on us!
PS You know how radioactivity is measured in half lives? e.g. Plutonium with
a half life of say 10,000 years!
I wonder what is the 'half life' of one car battery weighing say 25 pounds!
Several hundred? One thousand years? Maybe in the future we'll be digging up
those 'landfills' to recover "recyclable products"?

Maybe we will, when lead gets scarce, but bear in mind that most large
landfills for maybe 20 years now have been recycling car batteries,
this is an easy and relatively low-cost process. OK, there's always a
few slip through, but see above, the lead has proven to be very stable
in the ground, with no significant leachate problems.