Quotable Quote

The following three paragraphs are from a 2^nd May 2017 email from the first United Kingdom-based member of The LEAD Group Committee, Hesaan Sheridan:

Following on from what Elizabeth O’Brien* and Michelle Kilburn*, said about aspiring towards blood lead levels below 1 µg/dL [microgram per decilitre] and not accepting a level of 5 µg/dL as 'ok':

"The measurement of lead in the remains of pre-industrial humans has shown that the natural levels of lead were 0.016 μg/dL (Flegal and Smith, 1992), 625 times less than the current recommended public health goal in Australia (10 μg/dL).". (Source: Australia's leading public health body delays action on the revision of the public health goal for blood lead exposures, (September 2014) by Mark Patrick Taylor*, Chris Winder* [posthumously], and Bruce P. Lanphear, in Environment International 70:113-117, Elsevier, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412014001482 )

Apart from the Romans: THIS IS A POST-INDUSTRIALISATION PROBLEM!!

Notes: * Elizabeth O’Brien, Michelle Kilburn (a.k.a. Michelle Calvert) and Professor Mark Taylor are current members of The LEAD Group Committee, and Professor Chris Winder is a former member of The LEAD Group Committee.

The full reference for Flegal and Smith 1992 is: Lead levels in preindustrial humans, by Flegal AR, Smith DR. New England Journal of Medicine 326:1293-1294 May 7, 1992 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199205073261916#t=article