Great read! Is NHANES at any risk under the present anti-science administration. It seems to me to be right up MAHA’s alley, measuring hard data as affected by lifestyle. Where does NHANES get its funding from? I think it should be ramped up. I was struck by the graph on lead levels. In the 1970’s was it really that high? I’m 81 yo and, as a child, played with lead toy soldiers…I was probably in the hundreds! Never having been chelated, does the risk remain with me many years later?
Sanford, no, funding for NHANES doesn’t appear to be at eminent risk. The funding would come from money earmarked for the Centers for Disease Control. Yes the typical or median blood lead level was about 15 µg/dL, A level 1000 times higher than our pre-industrial ancestors. Blood lead levels have come down by 95% since then, but they are still 10 to 100 times higher than our pre-Industrial ancestors. Your lifetime lead exposure, which is stored in your bones, does pose an ongoing risk. The risk particularly increases for women after menopause when lead exposure sequestered in their bones is released.
My head is reeling and spinning......so much data.....so much information.....so many interactions........Thank you for trying to get us all to understand the complexity and the necessity and the urgency........it will take me many readings to get it all compacted into my brain into a useful simplicity of understanding. I am with you Bruce, just a little slow at wrapping my head around it all......
I always enjoy an article that teaches me something new about a tool I thought I know. Wonderful historical perspective that keeps its eye on the future! Thanks!
Thank you Tom. One of the things I love about writing is how much it teaches me. If you haven’t read William Zinsser’s On Writing Well or Writing to Learn, I suspect you’d really enjoy them.
Great read! Is NHANES at any risk under the present anti-science administration. It seems to me to be right up MAHA’s alley, measuring hard data as affected by lifestyle. Where does NHANES get its funding from? I think it should be ramped up. I was struck by the graph on lead levels. In the 1970’s was it really that high? I’m 81 yo and, as a child, played with lead toy soldiers…I was probably in the hundreds! Never having been chelated, does the risk remain with me many years later?
Sanford, no, funding for NHANES doesn’t appear to be at eminent risk. The funding would come from money earmarked for the Centers for Disease Control. Yes the typical or median blood lead level was about 15 µg/dL, A level 1000 times higher than our pre-industrial ancestors. Blood lead levels have come down by 95% since then, but they are still 10 to 100 times higher than our pre-Industrial ancestors. Your lifetime lead exposure, which is stored in your bones, does pose an ongoing risk. The risk particularly increases for women after menopause when lead exposure sequestered in their bones is released.
My head is reeling and spinning......so much data.....so much information.....so many interactions........Thank you for trying to get us all to understand the complexity and the necessity and the urgency........it will take me many readings to get it all compacted into my brain into a useful simplicity of understanding. I am with you Bruce, just a little slow at wrapping my head around it all......
I always enjoy an article that teaches me something new about a tool I thought I know. Wonderful historical perspective that keeps its eye on the future! Thanks!
Thank you Tom. One of the things I love about writing is how much it teaches me. If you haven’t read William Zinsser’s On Writing Well or Writing to Learn, I suspect you’d really enjoy them.