The Children of Flint Were Not ‘Poisoned’

Re:The Children of Flint Were Not ‘Poisoned’ by GauntletWizard on Monday July 23, 2018 @03:18PM (#17595136)

If I eat a crappy sandwich and get diarrhea from it, have I been poisoned? Certainly. Can I reasonably compare my experience with that of Alexander Litvinenko? No. Degree matters. The crappy day I have is on a totally different level from life-threatening injury.

The numbers matter. Our units today are grams of lead per liter of blood. These children had an increased blood-lead content of 1.2 x 10^-7. One study I found[1] cites a IQ loss of 1.5 points for each 5 x 10^-6. Only the extreme outliers - a percentage point of children - passed that level. That's not nothing, but I would bet (without evidence) that concussions/head injuries from High School Football causes greater IQ loss on average.

Lots of factors, fair and unfair, affect how our lives turn out. This one was unfair. It sucked. There are far bigger fish to fry.

[1]https://today.duke.edu/2017/03/lead-exposure-childhood-linke...

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Re:The Children of Flint Were Not ‘Poisoned’ by dEnigma on Monday July 23, 2018 @03:55PM (#17595446)

There are always bigger fish to fry, unless you're currently frying the biggest fish. That doesn't mean that the other fish aren't worth frying. Not everyone can or even should work on the biggest issue available; and fixing lots of smaller problems can go a long way.

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Re:The Children of Flint Were Not ‘Poisoned’ by dolessdrugs on Monday July 23, 2018 @03:37PM (#17595308)

who decides which fish are worth frying? You from your perspective or...

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