Future generations of children will also miss out on the "fun" of nerve damage and cognitive impairment linked to lead poisoning.

I'm all for fun and experimentation, but it's adult's jobs to keep kids from making life threatening mistakes.

Kids can still have similar kinds of fun, they just have to pick a safer material. There are several low melting point metals which aren't known to be as harmful.

Plus material like this: http://www.cooks.com/recipe/p149f8qz/salt-clay-dough.html

Which is harmless and if varnished can last years (a lot of people make Christmas decorations out of it).

In science class, we played with mercury. After school we had BB gun battles. We stood up in the front seat of my dad's pickup truck; the one with the metal dash. Bicycle helmets hadn't been invented yet. I weep for the future of children now.

//Edit: OK, people, the comment about weeping for the future of children was meant in jest! Nearly killing ourselves as kids wasn't helpful. The notion that we did all right is survivors bias.

> After school we had BB gun battles.

reminded that nothing makes you run faster than an "enemy" with an air rifle with crafts-clay "bullet". Leaves nice haematoma even through wool pants :)

I'm all for the progress, yet i think abolishing BB guns/air-rifle battles isn't the one. Making sure that everybody wears safety glasses would be the one (we didn't have the ones, and that i think was unnecessary risk) Lead of course has to go.

Another - i see in the park children playing battles with "swords" which can't deliver any pain - foam wrapped by duct tape. We had "swords" we carved out of wood. They could deliver some pain, and that made the fight more lively i'd say :)

I fought battles with metal BBs. I fought battles with airsoft plastic BBs. I've never had to dig an airsoft BB out of my leg, can't say the same about metal BBs.

>I weep for the future of children now.

Yeah, it's a shame we don't kill or permanently injure our children for the sake of our own nostalgia. Because the experiences I had as a kid are the only kind of experiences worth having.

<sigh> That was mildly sarcastic on my part. I guess I overplayed it.

To survive a hazard (as you, and to some extent I, did) is best of all. To suffer the constraints of protective encumbrances is next best. To die of the hazard as a child is worst.

There is a balance to be met, sure. But in choosing safetely measures we are taking out insurance. We prevent the worst, at the cost of preventing the best.

Did you weep for the ones who died when they went through the window of a pickup truck?