BP's Macondo Well Still Spewing Oil in Gulf

[astonas]

Re: BP's Macondo Well Still Spewing Oil in Gulf

Back 50 years ago when we in North America were apparently spewing all sorts of toxic stuff in the air, like lead in our gasoline, we didn't seem to have anywhere near the cancer rates we do today.

I'm not an M.D., but I'm pretty sure lead poisoning doesn't usually show up as cancer.

Lead poisoning (also known as plumbism, colica Pictonum, saturnism, Devon colic, or painter's colic) is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It interferes with the development of the nervous system and is therefore particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behavior disorders. Symptoms include abdominal pain, confusion, headache, anemia, irritability, and in severe cases seizures, coma, and death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning)

Lead poisoning cases have been dramatically reduced since the removal of lead from gasoline and paint. However, it is also true that a lot of other illnesses are simply less common now than they were, but it's simply hard to count up "number of cases of X disease that we DIDN'T see this year."

As for allergies, one prominent theory is that as we reduce the numbers of dangerous pathogen exposures experienced, the immune system adjusts to attack more and more minor things. While allergies are certainly annoying, I'm sure that if you had a choice between your kids having allergies or lead poisoning, you'd probably pick the allergies. So yes, actually, we are getting a lot better at staving off truly dangerous environmental factors. As much as they are griped about, environmental regulations actually DO make you safer.