Lead

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Some lead

Lead, symbol Pb, also known as "plumbum", is a heavy metal. Ingesting it causes numerous neurological problems,[1] hence it has slowly been removed from everything it used to be used in. [2] European Union ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive) standards now prohibit its use entirely, meaning that the Chinese have to put all their lead in US-bound toys and toothpaste.

Inorganic lead compounds as well as lead subacetate, lead chromate, and lead phosphate are carcinogenic in animal studies; there is insufficient information to evaluate lead carcinogenicity in humans.[3]

Contents

[edit] In pseudoscience

Lead and tin are used in molybdomancy, a type of divination involving pouring molten metal into water.

In traditional Chinese medicine, lead is supposed to be good for detoxing (you read that right), malaria, ringworms, skin rashes, rosacea, eczema, sores, ulcers, and killing intestinal parasites, among other things.[4] It's also used in Ayurvedic medicine.

[edit] In gasoline

The lead compound tetraethyllead[wp] was used as an additive to gasoline from the 1920s until the 1980s. Its contribution to pollution of the air and soil in cities and around motorways, combined with its incompatibility with catalytic converters, caused it to be phased out.

[edit] Other uses

Because it's soft and dense, it's good for making bullets.

It's also used for those little weights they add to your wheels whenever you get new tires, to balance them.

Because of its density (and cheapness), it's great for shielding against Radiation.

The Romans made their pipes out of lead, thus "plumbing".

Romans also used lead as an artificial sweetener. Really, it's a wonder they survived as long as they did.

Despite its name, "pencil lead" hasn't been made out of lead in, like, forever. Today's pencil "leads" are graphite bound together with a little bit of clay.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. See: “America’s Real Criminal Element: Lead” Mother Jones. Summed up by The Straight Dope: "The gist is that violent crime in the U.S., which rose sharply after 1960 and plummeted after 1990, tracked closely with per capita use of lead in gasoline, offset by 23 years. In other words, kids whose heads were messed up by high exposure to lead in infancy went on to become violent criminals as adults."
  2. Those wacky Romans
  3. International Agency for Research on Cancer: Inorganic and Organic Lead Compounds
  4. Galena, Acupuncture Today.
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