Lead is used to add weight to fishing lines, and the fisherman handles these lead weights every day when he is fishing. When he is not fishing, the fisherman repairs and prepares his fishing equipment which includes hand contact with lead weights.
I know that, and I’m guessing that so do most people on Ganoksin; my
point is that whilst cause and effect is easy to infer in some
situations, there are many where ‘common sense’ simply doesn’t
provide a good guide.
If you eat a bad mushroom then spend the evening vomiting, it’s easy
to know where the blame lies. If you take something with more subtle
effects, or effects that are delayed in time, it’s much more
difficult to link cause and effect. As examples, take asbestos
exposure and lung cancer, or eating mouldy peanuts and getting liver
cancer. Both these links are entirely uncontroversial, but
individuals affected would never be able to make them themselves.
The evidence comes from population studies and animal experiments.
The fisherman knows that he handles the lead weights, and wakes up
the next morning feeling well. He cannot know from experience what
the long term effects will be, and may or may not know about the
problems waterfowl can have if they eat lost weights by accident. He
may or may not care what happens to the ducks, or even what happens
to people who might shoot then eat them. But if so, I would find that
rather sad.
As an aside, I’m largely on this list because I make musical
instrument mouthpieces out of Silver. I started off using brass, but
made the change to avoid the lead contamination that is inevitable in
brass. I did a fair amount of reading and decided that the potential
harm was large enough to be worth avoiding.
Kit