Lancet Article on Lead Pollution and Heart Disease

July 3, 2018

"Lead makes the mind give way."

(The above quote, which appears in the Lancet article discussed below, is attributed to a second century BCE Greek physician, Discorides.)

On March 12, 2018, The Lancet published an article by Philip J. Landrigan entitled Lead and the Heart: An Ancient Metal's Contribution to Modern Disease.

According to the report,"Research into lead poisoning has shown that toxic effects arise in multiple organ systems at relatively low levels of exposure that were previously considered safe." The author cites the work of Herbert Needleman who showed "that lead could reduce children's cognitive function and disrupt behaviour at levels too low to produce symptoms—so-called subclinical lead poisoning. Subsequent investigation of the toxic effects of lead, using ever stronger study designs and sharper analytical methods, has shown that lead has toxic effects down to the lowest measurable levels."

Recent findings indicate that low levels of lead also have a deleterious effect on the cardiovascular health of adults including a significantly increased risk of mortality due to cardiovascular and ischaemic heart disease.

"A key conclusion to be drawn from this analysis is that lead has a much greater effect on cardiovascular mortality than previously recognised. Lanphear and colleagues' calculation that lead accounts for more than 400,000 deaths annually in the USA represents a tenfold increase over the number of deaths currently ascribed to lead. The authors argue that previous estimates have produced lower numbers because those analyses assumed that lead has no effect on mortality at amounts of lead in blood below 5 μg/dL and, thus, did not consider the effects of lower exposures."

Landrigan emphasizes the importance of considering the impact of lead and other pollutants on health and mortality outcomes,

"Inattention to lead's contribution to cardiovascular mortality is part of a broader disregard of the contribution of all forms of pollution, including lead, to mortality from non-communicable diseases. This neglect persists even though pollution accounts for an estimated 16% of deaths from non-communicable diseases globally, including 22% of all cardiovascular disease deaths, 26% of deaths from ischaemic heart disease, and 25% of stroke deaths."

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In many ways the aviation industry seems to be run by a consortium of slow learners. Despite the well documented health and environmental impacts of lead pollution, the EPA and FAA are continuing to drag their feet on taking the necessary steps required to outlaw the use of leaded aviation fuel. Though the negative effects of lead on mind and body have been known for over two millennia, U.S. residents living in the vicinity of general aviation airports, adults and children alike, are exposed to lead emissions on a daily basis because piston engine aircraft continue to use leaded fuel.

The aviation industry is the largest source of airborne lead pollution in the country. The Port of Portland owned and operated Hillsboro Airport (HIO) is a prime example. The majority of the users of this facility are student pilots recruited from overseas and out of state to engage in flight training over the local community. Most receive instruction in piston engine helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. As a result of the flight training, in combination with the recreational hobbyists who fly and train out of this airport, close to a ton or more of lead is spewed on homes, neighborhoods, schools, daycare centers, senior centers, waterways, prime farmland and recreational areas each year. And this does not even include the emissions released by other general aviation airports in the region such as Stark's Twin Oaks, Scappoose Airpark, Aurora, Skyport, Troutdale, and Pearson, to name a few. These 6 airports alone, all of which are located within a 25 mile radius of HIO, release an additional ton or more of lead into the air on an annual basis.

The beneficiaries of this arrangement include the Port of Portland, which accrues a profit on each gallon of leaded fuel sold at the Hillsboro and Troutdale airports. The private flight schools operating at HIO also profit, not just from the tuition received from the individual students but also from the taxpayer dollars and commercial passenger fees distributed via the FAA to subsidize the infrastructure costs of building and maintaining runways and taxiways. The expense of staffing and running air traffic control towers are also funded with public money. Similarly other general aviation airports throughout the region profit from the flight training industry, recreational hobbyists, and the sale of leaded fuel.

The losers continue to be the children, both born and unborn, who have a heightened chance of cognitive impairments and lowered IQs, along with an increased risk of ADHD and conduct disorder, as well as other behavioral and learning problems, and as discussed above, the adults who are at an increased risk of mortality due to heart disease.

How many more people will die and how many children will be burdened with a lifetime of health, cognitive, learning and behavioral impairments before the federal government, state legislatures and local politicians take definitive action to stop this inhumane and indefensible treatment of their own constituents?