Tuesday, May 19, 2009

CPSIA - A World Without Lead

Like you, I have been puzzling over why the ATV'rs and bike people are so uptight about leaving out the lead from their parts. After all, lead isn't good for anything, and besides being ANYWHERE near lead is just so risky. Why, I even put on my Glovies to write this blogpost simply because I had to TYPE the word "lead". But I have newfound respect for their concerns after seeing this demo video.

I suppose this must be why they put lead-in-paint on cars.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bravo for another fine post.

Here's another puzzler. The New York Times -- "cracker jack" reporting on the CPSIA aside -- has recently reported that there are elevated levels of lead in urban gardens (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/garden/14lead.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Lead%20Urban%20Gardens&st=cse).

I'm not sure how Mrs. Obama will deal since her own garden appears to have levels that, while under the ultimate limit for the CPSIA, are above the 40 ppm limit recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"The White House is mixing lime and compost into the soil for its kitchen garden, which according to a National Parks Service analysis has 93 p.p.m. of lead — an amount above background levels but not considered hazardous to children or adults by the E.P.A.’s standards."

The article goes on to say that some have grown spinach in their high lead gardens as a way of sucking the lead out of the soil. Of course, the freshly lead laden spinach that is grown can't then be eaten or composted -- it has to be discarded as toxic waste. This doesn't come as news to millions of school kids who have long suspected that spinach -- laden or otherwise -- was toxic.

Catherine Jaime said...

So good to laugh in the midst of CPSIA -- so we don't just cry about all this craziness! Thank you for giving us something to laugh about!