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Comment by iN7h33nD | Hacker News Reader

Lead is still used all over the place in he USA. Its very concerning. You have to specifically look for lead free versions. Examples:

* "fake" christmas decorations (trees, wreaths) often contain lead

* Garden hoses almost always contain lead

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A lot of these are vastly less dangerous than the use of tetraethyl lead in gasoline or other forms in which significant quantity can be easily taken up by the body (e.g. the old white lead carbonate paint pigment).

While it's reasonable to be extra careful with small children that might put decorations in their mouth, small amounts of lead in vinyl products (or more significant amounts in machined brass products) do not necessarily result in significant dosage in people who handle or use those products.

I drank from garden hoses all the time as a kid :-(

Gotta wonder what that did to the brain pan.

Perhaps. From the article "Last week, a massive new study concluded that lead is 10 times more dangerous than thought, and that past exposure now hastens one in every five US deaths."

Most electrical cords have it in them as well. Believe stuff from IKEA doesn't though as it meets EU standards.

Look for "RoHS"[1] on labels and electronics. That governs a list of materials, but I suspect the most common is lead. Among other things, this is the origin of significant usage of lead-free solder, which has led to its own set of issues in electronics (brittle joins, tin whiskers, etc).

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Sub...

Lead-free solder has since improved greatly. These days it's pretty hard to discern from leaded tin other than the fact that joints tend to not be glossy.

Especially if you're a hobbyist: Go for lead free solder. it's no worse to work with than leaded but a whole lot less toxic. (Still don't breathe the fumes though, solder flux is nasty stuff)

Seems there was a lot of hoopla about lead-free solders back in the day, but it seems industry did figure out such solders and protocols to use them properly, and contrary to various predictions, the sky hasn't fallen.

Looking at the state of e-waste "recycling" in 3rd world countries, I personally think it was darn good we got rid of lead solder.

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