Lead in everything

According to Center for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) of USA, one should worry if 10 microgram or more leade was found in a tenth of a litre of blood. It is thought that even the content of lead at a lower level can hamper IQ development of a child. In adult, lead can result in various neural related disease. After all, the dementia of many Roman emperors was thought to be caused by the addition of lead in the wine and food product of that time.

The limit of airborne content of lead is apparently set at 50 microgram per cubic metre of air averaged over a period of 8 hours, according to OSHA office of USA. Apparently for adult, the lead limit in blood is set higher than kids, which is now at 40 microgram per 100g of blood, which roughly calculated to 4 times higher than the concentration limit in kids. Kids are generally thought as weaker and more susceptible to any kind of safety hazard. But hey, who to say that adult should tolerate more lead? Won't the final damage be the same?

The current lead limit in candy is 0.1 ppm. The USA government, arguing that it's hard to determine the lead content of candies for sure, has merely advised parents to prevent their children from chewing candy wrapper and disallow their children from eating too much imported candy. I wonder how difficult it is to control the import and just stop the producion.

Recently, the added scare is due to the findings of lead in lipsticks! Lipsticks are so popular and an almost must-have for career woman. I don't think there is any woman who has never licked their lips while they are wearing lipsticks. Hence, if the lipstick contains lead, the woman should have been ingesting lead. Now, I wonder why Revlon was said to have lipstick containing no detectable lead while, the more expensive L'Oreal can't be made without it. Is there any difference in the appearance of the lipsticks? Or are people paying more because the lipsticks contain lead? hahahaha...

Lead is toxic due to its ability to bind to molecules which normally bind Calcium, Iron, or Zinc. The three elements are of many utilities in our body. In addition, binding of lead doesn't allow the molecules to perform their normal function as when they bind to the three elements. After all, Calcium ion is involved in the synpatic transmission of our neuron. I wonder whether this is the link between lead poisoning and neural related disease.

One thing for sure, I have not found the information on the normal amount of lead in air, water , or food yet.