Last US lead smelter shut down by the EPA

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Mike K:

--- Quote from: mattinker on December 03, 2013, 09:17:18 PM ---A lot of lives have been saved with the banning of lead based paint.

Regards, Matthew

--- End quote ---

Facts and reason have no place in a conspiracy.

Fergus OMore:
Musing a little, it is time that the odd telephone call is made to see how our old contacts are have fared and are faring. I spoke to my old engine fitter last night. He's nudging 84 now like me and we go back to those days when he had just survived the London Blitz, the rationing and - drinking somebody else's urine that was pumped from the River Thames in lead pipes and when we first met, he was cleaning the oil out of his dirty uniform with tetra ethyl lead in 100 octane Spitfire fuel.

Apart from a whoopsie with a drunken pilot leaving the 'gate' open on a Spit as he fired the Coffman starter- and blew his ear drums out, he is fine.

I suppose that I can say much the same. We are still driving fast cars, we are still messing about in our workshops at times and generally putting the World right- or think we are.

Lead poisoning? Really, who wants to live to 124 which was what my doctor threatened me with?

Regards

Norman

mattinker:
You may or may not accept that lead poisoning is real and has an effect on the human body, I for one try to avoid anything i know to be poisonous. I would prefer to die painlessly in my bed than by slow poisoning that might not actually kill me, but make things painful and difficult.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning

Regards, Matthew

Lew_Merrick_PE:
There are several issues embodied in this problem.

Firstly, we need materials that have downside effects that can (and should) be minimized. Lead serves a number of important and useful purposes upon which we depend. Proper controls mitigate those downside effects. The one that causes me to laugh up my sleeve is asbestos. The replacement materials for it have the same problems (short, sharp, and brittle fibers that pass around the environment and get lodged in places where they cause amazing damage). The primary difference is that we have regulations for processing, handing, and disposing of them that could be as easily applied to asbestos.

Second, we (i.e. Americans) have a government that has signed treaties that have resulted in our losing primary technologies to China and other countries. Few people today remember that, in the mid-/late-1970's, the American taxpayer footed the bill to rebuild and improve our major smelters -- and then, in the early-/mid-1980's, tore them down, packed them up, and shipped them overseas (to Korea and Taiwan mostly and initially) all at taxpayer expense. This was the period where US Steel reformulated itself into USX. The interpretation of the (Nixon era) treaties is getting more involved in our primary industrial base than most people realize.

In January of 2004, we (America) shut down the last high-strength bolt (screw) production line and shipped it to China. Our "business press" pontificated on how it was the cost of labor that drove this decision. As one of the machinist/technicians who built those machines (under a NASA/USAF funded program), I was somewhat amused by this statement. The machines we shipped out in 2004 were entirely automated -- bar stock is fed in at one end (using Automatic Guided Vehicles) and inspected, counted, and bagged screws come out the other end at a rate of 1.2 million/shift/week (for 1/4-20 X 1 inch long)! The only labor involved is changing out the thread rollers (call it 15 minutes of work performed twice a shift). In December of 2003 I purchased 3000 1/4-20 X 1 NAS qualified socket head cap screws for $6.15/100. In April of 2004 it cost me $8.40/100 -- and I had a 92% failure rate at acceptance testing (something that had never been higher than 2% previously) -- which is why I insist on purchasing only Mexican, Indian, or Brazilian made high-strength screws today!

mattinker:
I absolutely agree with you, it's just that using materials safely is the key factor, lead based paints were replaced, probably by paints that give other problems. The hatmakers all suffered from saturnism, the printing industry had the same problems. The next things are going to be formalin glues, I've developed a hypersensitivity, to MDF and polyurethane. I have had a real problem with my home/workshop which I have just about cleared of so called safe products that I react to. I have melted lead zinc and Al for years, I've always been as careful as possible, I'm not going to stop, but it's getting hard to be safe!

Regards, Matthew

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