Clair Patterson: scientist and campaigner against lead poisoning (2017) | Hacker News Reader

Clair Patterson: scientist and campaigner against lead poisoning (2017)

mentalfloss.com

94 pointsvezycash26 comments

The dual of this story is Thomas Midgely, who not only introduced tetraethyl lead into gasoline, but also invented CFCs. Later, after developing paraylsis due to polio, he invented a system of pulleys that could raise and lower himself to his bed. This lead to his asphyxiation.

He was fully aware of the dangers of TEL, having had to spend a few months recuperating from lead poisoning after working with it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.

To be fair, I don't think he knew that CFCs were bad for the ozone layer.

Great guy. Lead reduction probably resulted in a general increase of +5 IQ. Which is HUGE when it's applied to a whole generation all over the world.

> Lead reduction probably resulted in a general increase of +5 IQ

I assume that this doesn't apply to the older generations alive today, so at what point do we reap the benefits of that across the political leadership?

Well... as of a few weeks ago when the teenagers started handing out lectures about dealing with climate change.

We already have reaped the benefit with crime. There's very good evidence that phasing out of TEL was a major factor in the drop in crime starting in the 1990's. At that time, people who had been exposed to lead began to age out of crime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis#...

Lead has an especially bad effect on executive function and impulse control, so I wouldn't be suprised if it had an effect on the behavior of voters in the aggregate and even politicians.

I was surprised recently to learn that general aviation aircraft still use leaded fuel. I wonder how much lead we are all still exposed to because of this? Is there some technical reason why it can't be removed?

I also did not know this, so went digging. Looks like it's just small prop aircraft that still use leaded gas, even though most of them would run with unleaded just fine. How crazy!

Relevant Article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lead-in-aviation-...

Only newer engines can run unleaded. Most AV motors are made in the legacy style and have unhardened valve seats, requiring TEL in AVgas. Overhaul to mill the heads to install hardened seats would run 8k to over 100k depending on the craft. FAA only regulates when accidents happen it seems, so perhaps reframe the problem. FAA regs requiring proven engines and disincentivising things like fuel injection, electronic ignition, and other staples of ICE efficiency and reliability. We are effectively stuck in the 1950s in small aircraft ownership as a direct result. Considering the advancements, its a bit insane not to at least allow new tech, much less disincentivise it.

Another alternative would be coming up with some organometallic that replicates the properties of TEL, the transition metal(s) of which are something that's not lead. Or mercury, uranium, cadmium, and a few others that are really easy to avoid. Materials chemistry has gotten lots better over the past hundred years, the meaningful development costs are only in validation testing. The FAA "should" be able to cover that cost instead of individual pilots converting their engines.

>Is there some technical reason why it can't be removed?

One reason is that alternative octane boosters can cause icing in carburetors and fuel injection systems, resulting in engines cutting out at low temperatures. Improvements in combustion chamber design have helped reduce the reliance on high octane fuel, so I expect the situation will gradually improve.

EVENTUALLY the engines form the 50s will finally age out of general aviation

If you think leaded avgas is bad (it is), wait until you learn about lead-based stabilizer compounds in PVC (which is used in electrical cables and pipes/hoses, among other things). Those compounds aren't even chemically bonded with the actual PVC molecules, so the lead eagerly leaches out. Also there's lead in brass keys and in brass faucets (yes, even the ones marked "lead free", when it comes to potable water piping/fixtures, "lead free" actually means "0.25% lead").

AFAIK there's no regulation in US that will force reformulation with lead-free compounds (which do exist), the best the US has is California's Prop 65, which provides a bunch of useless labels which people are trained to ignore. What a disaster.

> when it comes to potable water piping/fixtures, "lead free" actually means "0.25% lead"

It's a fucking farce that any lead is ever allowed to be purposely added to plumbing materials labeled "lead free". However, nowadays most such labeled materials actually are lead-free. All the big brass suppliers -- Concast, Chase, Viega, Mueller, others -- produce actual lead-free brass and bronze, with no more than trace and incidental amounts of lead.

> AFAIK there's no regulation in US that will force reformulation with lead-free compounds

Correct, nothing nation-wide, although companies that sell stuff to the EU often make RoHS/REACH compliant lead-free products for all markets, simply as a matter of efficiency.

You're also right, Prop 65 is a great example of smart and necessary idea that was crafted into a useless law. Labels without any actual market restrictions are an invitation to gaming by manufacturers, and apathy by consumers.

Working link to download Patterson's 1956 paper Age of meteorites and the Earth PDF:

http://booksdl.org/scimag/get.php?doi=10.1016%2F0016-7037%28...

Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Cosmos had a very good episode dedicated to him fighting the establishment.

Zircons were the key afaik and comparing them to deep sea lead percentages. Zircons are little crystals that keep things locked up and make for a useful record thats useful for investigating envoirnmental anomalies like this.

The theory of how lead poisoing lead to the fall of Rome is also interesting.

I've seen this episode and can confirm it's excellent (as well as the rest of the series that will resume in March 2019).

I think he's featured in "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, so certainly not "never heard of"

Bryson's book is a great read. Definitely weaves some of the monotonous details into a compelling story. I highly suggest people read this book if they like the highlights of natural and modern history and science.

> “I’m a little child,” Patterson would say. “You know the emperor’s new clothes? I can see the naked emperor, just because I’m a little child-minded person. I’m not smart. I mean, good scientists are like that. They have the minds of children, to see through all this façade.”

I remember watching a Netflix documentary about him once upon a time. Truly amazing

Makes me wonder how many of these stories are happening right now that few know about.

The documentary "Merchants of Doubt" covers a few of these cases, all comparing them ultimately to climate change from CO2 pollution, and the oil industry's fervorous cover ups.

The scary thing is in the US most people over 40 probably have impaired executive function and impulse control due to childhood exposure to lead.

Just in case anyone is confused why Trump is president and 2/3 of congress and the senate are utterly off their nut.

Probably only a little bit true.

The extent to which one is affected depends on their ability to produce metallothionein [1], which is genetic/epigenetic.

Most people have sufficient metallothionein expression to detoxify low-level environmental lead from their bodies.

For people who do have non-lethal lead toxicity, the effects are a dulling/deadening of the personality - reduced creativity, sociability, cognitive agility.

Say what you like about Trump, but dull doesn't really fit.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallothionein

> Say what you like about Trump, but dull doesn't really fit.

I'm not actually talking about him, just pouting out that if widespread problems with executive function and impulse control resulted in a tripping of the murder rate 1960-1990, stands to reason there would be knock off politic effects as well. You have a voting public that makes bad political decisions.

Don't let the clickbait title turn you off, this is a really interesting article (and I'm only a quarter of the way through it).

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