WEBVTT - What Makes Lead So Poisonous? 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.160 This episode is brought to you by squares Space. Start 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.280 building your website today at squarespace dot com and our 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:09.040 offered code stuff at checkout and you will get ten 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:14.720 percent off Squarespace. Set your website apart. Welcome to you 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:24.000 Stuff you should know from house Stuffworks dot com. Hey, 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.920 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.840 Chub Bryant and Jerry's to my right. So this stuff 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:34.520 you should have. It's right recording in a new pop 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:38.199 up restaurant called Jerry's Burrito Check. Yeah, Jerry's eating a 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:40.680 burrito right now, A frozen one. I guess right. You 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.159 didn't make that from scratch fresh Jerry frozen burrito is 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:47.360 fine with me, though, yes, some of them. Nothing wrong 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.239 with any frozen burrito ever created. Yeah, I mean there's this. 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:54.160 They're very specific, you know. I mean, it's not like 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.480 a fresh burrito, but it's its own thing that's still good. 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.440 This you call it like a re tet or something 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:03.720 weird like that. It's something that differentiate it, you know. 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:06.320 I agree with you, man. Yeah, but man, sometimes when 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:10.240 that reef read bean pops out and burns your mouth, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:12.679 that's just the best you have a hole in your 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:14.720 in your on your gums for a couple of days. Yeah, 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.160 alfa a little cheese on top too, to cool it 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:19.560 in the oven. No, to melt on top o. That's 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:25.560 an antilada then, Uh not really, I think the antilada 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.679 makes the it's the sauce, right, Yeah, okay, that's what 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:34.000 I'll say, swimming and saucel, right, antilata sauce. This may 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:40.520 be your best intro yet, Chuck. We're talking about lead today, 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.240 that's right. Do you know much about UM the Flint, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:50.200 Michigan lead poisoning scandal that happened, would say blemish. Yeah. 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.000 I posted about it on our Facebook call UH a 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.000 couple of months ago and sort of was a part 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.480 of a lively discussion there. But UM only from that 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.240 and in this research same here. I mean I was 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:03.680 aware of it, kind of. I didn't understand the details. 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:06.080 But for those of you who don't UM, who don't 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:10.160 know about the Flint, Michigan water poisoning. But Flint, Michigan 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.880 UM has faced a lot of problems since the auto 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.400 industry went away, UM, but one of them wasn't poor 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.120 water quality. They actually the people of Flint actually paid 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.560 I think the highest radar, among the highest rates in 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:25.760 the country. To get their water, their water was pumped 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.320 from Lake Huron through Detroit, and Flint brought their water 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.160 from Detroit. Get that good, clean Detroit water, right, You 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:34.960 know you're in a pickle when you're buying water from 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.640 Detroit and that's the healthy water. So um, they're building 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.840 a new pipeline from Lake Huron that goes around Detroit, 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.160 and Flint said, we're going to get in on that action. 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.720 And Detroit said, oh yeah, well, we're canceling our contract 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.000 rather than pay for a short term contract with Detroit. 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:56.200 The emergency manager, the basically the the emergency mayor appointed 0:02:56.200 --> 0:03:00.480 by the governor himself, UM said, we're just and tap 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.120 into the Flint River. Not not a good idea, as 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:05.120 it turned out. No, it's not because in Flat Michigan, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:08.880 there were, among other places, something called Buick City. Buick 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:14.040 City was a four plus acre um car manufacturing plant 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:18.919 that made buicks, and um it really heavily polluted the river, 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.320 so much so that people in Flint, after just a 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.520 few months of drinking this water from the tap, started 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.760 losing their hair. Um. Well, right away they said this 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.040 looks and taste awful, right, it's taste of chlorine. And 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:34.920 the reason it tasted of chlorine is because there were 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.560 e coal I break outbreaks that they had to like 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.120 treat the water with chlorine. And then it also to 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:45.200 some people, um, it smelled like sulfury as well. It 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:50.360 looked terrible. But people started losing hair, started getting rashes. Um. 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.840 There's there was one kid who had an autoimmune disease already. 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.200 He just stopped growing. Um, and it was it was 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.720 bad news. But the people of Flint, the Flint government, 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:04.720 and the the Michigan Environmental Protection Division basically said no, 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:09.000 we're following all the laws. Um, everything's fine with the water. 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.360 Just go back to sleep. Flint and Flint did something different. 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.560 A bunch of them taught themselves the science of like 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:21.520 water and sanitation and um, the drinking water laws. They 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.359 became basically citizen scientists, and they took it back to 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:26.520 the Flint government and the state government and said, you 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:30.120 guys are wrong. This is toxic water and we're being 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:31.720 poison and you have to do something about it. And 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.160 they finally did well. And I think the issue was 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.479 don't play dumb. We know you know why, why are 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.320 you making us tell you exactly, and they kept the 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:44.560 apparently the company line was no that here's the science, 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.720 here the here the results of the tests. But the 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.000 tests were terrible. And if you want to know all 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.599 about it, there's a really really great um article on 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:56.360 five dot com called what went Wrong in Flint and 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.320 um it just really chronicles everything very well. But the 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.919 big problem with Flint isn't that there was chlorine in 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.440 the water. It was that there was a bunch of 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.680 lead in the water. And the reason why there's a 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:09.640 bunch of lead in the waters because there's lead pipes 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:11.640 going to a lot of houses in Flint and the 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.000 water that was being pumped through those pipes was so 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:17.400 corrosive that it was bringing a bunch of lead with 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.920 it and poisoning the city of Flints for months. Yeah. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.200 And the reason people use lead in pipes is because 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.560 it's not corrossive. Corrosive, that's how corrosive the water. Yeah, exactly. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.000 That really says something. It really does. Uh. And I 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.440 guess we'll look back later and talk about the lawsuits 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.120 and all that stuff. That sound good. Yeah, I think 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.720 that's a great idea, kind of bookend it. But let's 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:40.200 talk about lead itself, like what's the problem with lead? 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:42.360 Where did it come from? And that that whole idea 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:46.240 of um using lead pipes is nothing new either. It's 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:50.680 actually pretty old, to tell you the truth. Yeah, lead um. Well, 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.479 the Romans, of course were the the first to do 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:58.800 almost everything, either Asians or Romans. Um. Well, I don't 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:04.400 know Africa. Oh that's true. So basically everybody excepts he said, 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:08.640 Europe as the migration expanded exactly. And don't forget all 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:12.359 of the innovations going on in Mesoamerica as well. Shout 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:17.320 out to anyone who came before us. But it's been 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.200 going on since ancient times. Romans using lead as lead 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:24.520 piping for sewage draining and carrying water, even stored water 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.800 and containers lined with lead. Uh. And in fact, this 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:30.080 is pretty interesting. I think the English word for plumbing 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.680 and the chemical symbol pb that is lead, comes from 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.120 the Latin word plum bumb. Now a plumb bumb is 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:41.080 is that plumbers crack? Oh? Nice? If it wasn't it 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.240 is officially now. You know. My friend Eddie he his 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.080 young daughter, asked him what plumber's crack? What's the other day? 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:49.159 And he said, said what did you tell her? And 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.280 he said, well, you know, I told her what it was. 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.760 He said, sometimes plumbers they've bent over a lot because 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.039 pipes are below you, and sometimes their pants sag a little. 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.200 Then you see their butt crack. And she went, oh, 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:03.839 the only thing I take issue with is the use 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.600 of the words sometimes right all the times. Other than 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.760 that's a great explanation. So the Latin plum bumb, which 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:15.120 means lead. Yeah, which that that has been mysterious to 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.559 me for many decades. P B doesn't make any sense, 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.520 Like why would they call it p B because peanut 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.240 but head right, and p B is uh. You'll find 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.080 it on the periodic table. And the reason you'll find 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.720 it on the periodic table is because lead is an element, 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.800 a heavy metal um, and it has all sorts of 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.320 properties that make it very desirable, Yeah, really unique to 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.240 although super super toxic, as we'll find. Yeah, it's not 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:42.520 often you can find something that is super malleable and 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:47.640 soft but also strong in dense exactly um, which makes 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:52.280 lead perfect for water pipes because it's also it also 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:55.280 resists corrosion, like you said, so you can run water 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:56.640 through it and as long as the water is not 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:01.320 super bad. Uh. The the lead won't rust. It will 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.239 leach lead into the water, but it still won't rust, 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:08.880 right right. So um it's also uh, not very good 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.400 at conducting electricity, which makes lead very useful for other 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:17.400 things like um soldering electrical connections. The electrical connection will 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.600 remain the thing that transmits the current, the lead won't. 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:25.720 It's pretty awesome. Did you say soldier solder? Solder? Yeah, 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.840 I never heard of pronounce How do you say, solder solder? 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.559 You gotta say that l. I think the silent unless 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:38.400 it's regional, regional, regional. To my brain, I think solder. 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.680 You said that because you're from Toedo, right. So the 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.360 use of the use of leg goes back even before 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.240 the Romans. Actually, but it first appeared mostly in art 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:54.120 like lead paint. Yeah, it wasn't like um they described 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.080 in the articles and novelty. Uh. And it was apparently 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.680 it makes colors more vibrant and it's less erosive, which 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.680 is why you still, even in the United States, see 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:09.800 lead paint on street signs because it's less corrosive. Yeah, 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.959 that's what they say. It's still used on signs supposedly 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.000 up until as recently as the nineties, and it may 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.800 still be going on depending on the country that it's produced. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:23.120 In The ink on the outside of a plastic bread 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.320 bag frequently has lead in it, or it used to, 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.120 and it wasn't a problem unless the somebody kept the 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.880 bread bag and turned it inside out to store food in. 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.280 Then that food leached the lead out of the ink. 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.560 It was actually like a big problem for a while. Well, 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:42.800 I'm not sure that it is anymore. I couldn't find 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:46.040 anything in recent the most recent thing I saw saying that, yeah, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.120 it still happens, right, Well, it's less expensive as a paint, 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.800 which is another reason, uh in the in the colors 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.840 and more vivid apparently. But um, this hasn't been a 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.160 problem in the US for a while, but in China 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.000 they still use a lot of lead head um in paint. 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.280 And in two thousand seven there were massive recalls for 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.080 everything from Dora the Explorer toys to Sesame Street toys 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.120 due to the fact that they had lead pain on them. 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.800 And little kids put everything in their mouths, including their toys, 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.040 because they're big dummies, and they end up eating lead, 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:22.280 which is a big problem. So there was a massive 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:26.920 recall of Chinese products in because of this. Now it 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.000 was two thousand seven. What I say seven, Yeah, you're 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.959 harkening back and to the Urban Dance Squad day. Did 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.960 you look them up? Man, you're missing out. I don't 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:42.840 think that's true. Really, Yeah, why just because I like 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.839 them remember them vaguely? Oh yeah, it wasn't like I've 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.240 never heard of the Urban Dance Squad. No, you have 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.080 a good taste of music. Mental philosph for the Globe, great, 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:55.280 like a legitimately great album that I'll look it up. 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.600 I'll look it up. It's just weird that you say 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:00.120 you think you're not missing out. It's for no know, 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.679 because I mean, again, I remember Urban Nant Squad for 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.920 some reason. I put them in line with like Spin 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.120 Doctors in three eleven. No, no, well, you know what 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.960 I mean. Three eleven could be slightly compared because they 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.640 were kind of a rock rap group, but they were Dutch. 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.520 Urban Dance Squad was okay, so that that makes them 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:22.800 cool in here right automatically? Yeah. Uh, but if you 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.200 just picked this up as like, what are they talking 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:30.520 about Enchilada's Urban Dance Squad, um so lead paint in 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.040 the United States is uh, well, it's still an issue. 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.120 In some ways because older houses still have it. But 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.440 as of UM nineteen seventy eight they said no more, 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.800 get the light out. That's right, and they define it 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:48.560 as any paint or surface coating that contains lead equal 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.840 or exceeding one milligram for a square centimeter. Yeah. So 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.400 basically um In said, if you're going to manufacture something 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.320 for somebody's home that people are generally going to come 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:01.600 in contact with, most people don't come in contact with 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:06.080 street signs, UM, right, then you can't have lead in it. 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.719 But again, any house built pre there's plenty of them 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:14.080 out there, very likely has lead paint in it. It 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.199 also probably has lead pipes. Um. And there's a lot 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.720 of lead around us all over the place in places 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.720 you wouldn't even think, like there's lead. And uh, leaded 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:28.000 glass like really like a glass you like you might 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:32.880 be using you conceivably could be drinking lead out of it. Oh, 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.400 but you don't drink out of leaded glass. Sure. Yeah, 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.280 they use it to make regular plain old dumb glass 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.040 into more like crystal. It gives it like a ping 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.679 when you when you tap it. It makes it, uh, 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:50.080 the the reflection a lot sharper. It also UM lowers 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.760 the melting point. So you know, if you put it 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:57.720 in the oven, it doesn't like, but it's conceivably bad 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:59.839 for you. You know, who was on it long but 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.680 for the United States government. Federal government was the city 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:09.360 of Baltimore. In one they banned lead pigment for interior paint, 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:13.400 very smart for their housing. And since the fifties had 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:15.720 kind of been phased out in different parts of the country. 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.200 And then ine, we finally got the Federal Lead Poisoning 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:23.959 Prevention Act, and then it took seven years after that 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.400 to fully ban the paint the paint lead paint. Right. 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:32.360 There's another big source of lead that was all over 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.080 the place in the twentieth century. Uh, and that was 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:39.960 in gasoline in cars. There was an additive in gasoline 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.680 that was added to gaso link called tetra ethyl lead, right, yeah, 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:45.960 you remember that, like, uh, you know, fill it up 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:50.920 with unleaded or or or fully leaded. And the reason 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.400 that they added lead to gas was because there was 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.800 a problem called knocking right where um, the in a 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:03.440 high performance engine, when the gas entered the ignition chamber, 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.360 the combustion chamber, it it may just get so amped 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.559 up that it would combust it would ignite before it 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:15.000 was supposed to, and this would basically disrupt the movement 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.880 of the pistons. Right, they knocked the pain that did 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.400 all sorts of bad stuff. The lead kept the gas 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.920 from combusting or igniting before it was meant to, so 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:28.640 it was a pretty great additive. The thing is, we 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:32.720 already knew that lead was not good for you at 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:35.440 the time, but we added it to gas anyway, and 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.480 it was finally phased out in the seventies. Starting in 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:42.240 the seventies, I should say, um, because we started adding 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:46.840 catalytic converters to our cars. Yeah, that helped that, and um, 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.360 just are are the process of the chemical process of 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.840 refining petroleum just advanced, so we no longer needed it. Right, 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.280 So it wasn't just crumby gas. It was pretty good gas. 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.000 It didn't need lead. If you run leading gas through 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.480 catalytic converter, it totally messes it up. And the catalytic 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.840 converters there to prevent emission, so you take lead out 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.920 of gas. The problem we found is that during these 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:14.880 few decades from like the twenties till actually was the 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:17.600 last year you could have lead in your gas in 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:23.160 the United states, Um that during this period, basically all 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.880 the cars on the road were spewing lead, lead vapors 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.800 into the atmosphere that would just go into the air 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:31.640 and then come back into the ground and settle in 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.760 the soil and water and your face. Yeah, I had. 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.480 I used lead of gas in my Um. I had 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.120 to put it in. My early VW Beatles that I 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.640 drove had a couple of old you know, vented well vintage. 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:47.000 They bought theom new Oh yeah, yeah, my mom she 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.480 bought a sixty eight Beetle brand New. Wow, that's when 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.040 I drove. When I turned sixteen, I think it was 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.240 still around. Huh yeah, yeah, you know those things they 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.160 never die if you take care of them. Did you 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:00.200 like ever use duct tape or anything like that on? No, 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.760 but I did. Uh. Funny you mentioned I had a hole, 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:09.560 sizable hole in the rear floorboard. Um that we my 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:11.680 friends call it the Flintstones car because you could, like 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.160 you put your feet down and run. So I did 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:18.040 have a board, a running board. Um no, just a 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.600 board over the whole. But I mean you can remove 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.360 the board and run while you're sitting in the backseat. 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:28.040 That's right. Great car. Yeah, lead has been added to 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:33.400 cosmetics over the years. Uh, jewelry, jewelry, Uh, pottery, and 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.840 then uh today because everyone knows let is so uh 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.520 such a jerk. One of the only places you're gonna 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:41.760 find it in the u S at least as in 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.120 your car battery your car, Yeah, your car battery or 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.960 your laptop actually, yeah, which is why it's really important 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.960 to recycle that car battery, don't or that laptop. Don't 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.520 throw it in the woods. Yeah, responsibly recycle your electronics 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:56.640 and batteries. Yeah. If there's one thing that we've learned 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.960 since the twentieth centuries that lead has some serious staying 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.600 power and it has a very pesky tendency to get 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.760 out of wherever we put it, right, And yeah, if 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:08.919 you put it in just a regular landfill that's not 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.119 designed to accept things like lead, um, it will just 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.360 leach into the groundwater and um. Same thing with your 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.800 e waste, your your laptops, and the reason that they're 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:24.600 used in laptops, um is because the lead actually protects 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.399 you from the radiation that would shoot out of your 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.280 laptop screen into your face if it weren't for the 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.680 toxic lead in there. That's right. Glass cathode ray tubes 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.119 like you find in your computer laptop screen. Yeah. Well 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:39.080 I don't know about your laptop, but your computer, yeah, 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:42.840 your monitor. But there's but you should let in there. 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.560 You should responsibly recycle your laptop too, for sure, for 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:47.960 a number of reasons. I know you did a what 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:51.560 was it called electronics recycling? Yeah? What was it? Like? 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.600 Just a thought or I have no idea what you're 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.920 talking about. You did a video series where you like, no, sure, 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.680 deep thought. No, I can't even remember I created the series. Yeah, 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.560 but you do one on e recycling. Yeah, but nobody 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:10.320 cared or watch. So the world was not saved. Everyone said, Chuck, 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.639 quit doing it. All right, Well, let's take a break. 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.600 I'm gonna go cry tire for man. What was the 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:19.680 name of that series? I don't know. We'll go get 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:21.959 forties and pour them out on the curb Forum. All right, 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:39.959 we'll be back in a second. All right, Josh, we've 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:44.639 talked a lot about lead so far and enchiladas in 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:49.680 Dutch rock rack rap rock bands. It comes from the earth, though, 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.160 let's let's take it underground. Yeah it's not actually, I mean, 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:55.879 it is naturally occurring, but it doesn't naturally occur in 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.200 its pure form. Yeah, you don't just like dig down. 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.320 You're like, hey, there's a big hunk of lead, let 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.600 me pull it out. Instead, lead atoms have um I 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:10.960 think four unpaired uh electrons maybe, and it's outer shell um. 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.679 So it likes to form connections with other things. So 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.080 when you find lead in the earth, you're gonna find 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.439 it in the form of a ox side or a 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.760 sulfide or something like that. Frequently it's combined with silver, 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:26.080 and so that means it has to be separated. And 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.640 even the Romans back in the day, which by the way, 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.640 these Roman um lead pipes that they used for baths 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.040 and for sanitation and stuff still intact today. You can 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.720 still dig those up and beat people with them. You could. 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:41.800 That's the other place you'll find a lead pipe is 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.080 in the hand of some dude coming after you, or 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.640 a game of clue. Oh yeah, that's right. That was bent. 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.240 Even the guy was hit so hard with it, Colonel Mustard, 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.800 he was not to be trusted, he was not. But yes, 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:56.919 the Romans they had a pretty us man. They were 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:01.760 so smart. They had a pretty ingenious process called coppellation. Uh. 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:04.560 The extent of that is basically the idea is that 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:09.120 some precious metals, I'm sorry, precious metals. All precious metals 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:13.840 won't oxidize, but dumb metals will. So if you heat 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.200 that junk up, it's going to separate, right. And then 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:18.920 they used it mostly to separate from silver. But these 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.680 days we get most of our lead from something called galena, 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.040 where a lead sulfide is found, right. Yeah, And our 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:28.680 process is sort of similar. It is very like using 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.360 heat to separate things. And this this actually it very 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:36.040 much resembles Do you remember our waste gasification episode. Yeah, 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.080 I couldn't remember which one this it was that one, 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:41.480 because the process is very similar. So you take some 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:46.040 lead sulfide and you heat it up, uh in the air, 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:50.720 so there's the presence of oxygen and it converts into um, 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.880 lead oxide and sulfur dioxide, right, So you separate them 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.200 out a little bit. Then you take that lead oxide 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.639 and you egg carbon co and you again mix it 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.159 with some air and as that happens, the air combines 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:09.040 with the oxide into car you know, the carbon combines 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:12.320 with the air and becomes carbon dioxide. Takes all of 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:16.800 the um oxygen molecules from the lead atoms. So the lead, 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:20.280 basically what amounts of pure lead, becomes molten and goes 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.399 down to the bottom of the furnace and carbon dioxide 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:26.680 goes out into the atmosphere. It sounds like a very 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:31.480 safe process. Basically you're creating molten lead and carbon dioxide. Yeah, 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.000 that's called roasting and smelting. And uh. Once that lead 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.560 sinks cools down, it's gonna it's called a pig It's 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:42.959 just a big mess of lead basically. Yeah, like pig iron. Yeah, 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:47.760 it's it's delicious. Uh. And then you have slag, which 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:52.199 is the non metallic byproduct of the smelting process, and 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:56.919 you siphon and cool that down and it's waste waste product. Yes. Uh. 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.199 And like I said, recycling your car battery is important 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.920 because there's also a process called secondary extraction where they 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:05.200 get that lead out of your battery. You can keep 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:07.720 using it exactly. That's the other good thing about lead. 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:12.520 It is extremely reusable because again, it has a lot 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:14.919 of staying power, so you're not gonna use lead up, 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.199 you know, which means you want to reuse it. Yes, 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:20.239 we should get to the point where we don't need 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.359 to mind any more lead or process anymore lead. Just 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.040 reuse the lead we've got, or maybe find some great 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:29.840 substitute that isn't so toxic. You know, you melt down 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:33.560 those tiny civil war figurines. Oh yeah, those guys are 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:37.520 lead Okay I thought they were. Yeah, So handling and 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:41.720 painting those with lead paint, it's dangerous, right, yes, yes, 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:44.840 yes it is. Is that where we're losing so many 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:47.840 Civil war figurine buffs? I think so at an alarming rate. 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.399 That's why they all have like spittle and drool around 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:53.480 the corners of their mouths and like zone out while 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:57.960 they're painting. Well, there's other reasons for that, but sure contributes. 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:03.680 So uh okay, chuck um, you mentioned or we mentioned 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:09.000 lead refining and processing, smelting, roasting, that kind of stuff, right, Um, 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:13.080 that does create emissions of not just carbon dioxide but 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:17.119 also um lead vapor, which is not good stuff, and 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:19.159 you want to control that kind of stuff. But it 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:22.200