I’m sorry, but the diagram below seemed like the “perfect” way to leave a message about lead poisoning for Christmas. I used the term poisoning because the American CDC says no level of lead is “safe”. After all the Borgias used arsenic and lead for poisoning, with lead being the slower and more subtle way to kill your political enemies.

When you’re looking at the diagram below, you need to be aware that the symptoms or “results” of lead poisoning are dosage dependent. As the amount of lead in your body increases, more and more of this stuff happens.

Kind of like an advent calendar really. For each increment in blood lead levels, up pops a new disease. Not like Russian roulette because there you get 5 chances in 6 of something bad not happening. With lead bad things are guaranteed.

Another way to look at this is as follows:

Note all the stuff that happens when the BLL is below 10ug/dl. None of the effects on the nervous system are beneficial, most of them happen when your blood lead levels are UNDER 10 ug/dl.

Did I mention that gout is more common as blood lead levels increase?

At one time it was thought gout was a rich man’s disease, you got it because of overindulgence. But considering what drinking wine out of a pewter or lead crystal goblet might do to your blood lead levels, and only more well off people could afford pewter or lead crystal, is it a wonder rich people got gout more often?