Lead poisoning among US children
&gt; “But if you don’t test for it, it’s like it doesn’t exist.”<p>This is exactly it. During our house purchasing process, our state gives you the so-called right to know if lead exists in a house. But all a seller has to do is check on the form that they have no knowledge of lead in the house. The house could literally be filled with it on the walls, door jams, windows, but if they check &quot;we&#x27;re not sure&quot;, then both them and the state have washed their hands of the issue. So basically, you need to test for yourself. Meanwhile, the state has covered their ass by providing the requirement of the disclosure, even though the disclosure is completely worthless. The same goes for radon testing. And it&#x27;s practically impossible to get an offer accepted if you do not waive your right to test for lead and radon before purchasing.<p>It&#x27;s just irritating to me that industries and the government go through all this trouble to do nothing but cover their ass and stop right before they do something that would actually help the issue in the real world. Additionally, nearly all of the stuff you do when purchasing a house protects somebody else except you as a buyer. It&#x27;s amazing to me that there aren&#x27;t stricter requirements, standards for testing, and regulations around testing for lead and radon, two things that are easy to test for but have seriously adverse health effects.<p>Also, it&#x27;s surprising just how much stuff still has lead in it. When I was researching ideas for a compost bin in my backyard, many suggested wire mesh (aka chicken wire, wire cloth, etc.). However, I found out that the galvanizing process leaves a fair amount of lead on the wire, which could then leach into the resulting compost, then the ground the compost is used on, and then your garden vegetables. Just touching the stuff at the store now means you have lead dust on your hands.<p>Even researching what soldering wire to use is a pain because apparently leaded solder is just so much &quot;better&quot; when it comes to flowing than non-leaded. It just doesn&#x27;t seem to be taken that seriously at the hobbyist level (whereas my understanding is that industrial processes already have switched to non-leaded solder). I get that it&#x27;s easier to use, but what about when kids or pets are around, or you forget to wash your hands, or when disposing of it?