As we have come to know more, over and over and over what was regarded as "harmless" has turned out to be not so harmless. Lead is one of those. Cigarettes another, cocaine (as late as 1980 the AMA said cocaine only duplicated the normal euphoria a person was capable of feeling) and the lists go on and on. Carbon tetrachloride, Agent Orange, DDT, come to a weak mind.

Just because it can't be measured right now, or in a year, doesn't mean it isn't having a deleterious effect. There are levels of lead which don't produce a measurable effect, there is no level of lead which is good.

And, I'm reminded of a friend of mine who had to oversee the moving of a decommissioned nuclear reactor from a power generating plant up the Columbia River to Hanford. The environmental laws require that any vessel moving these things be able to survive a drop of 30 or 60 feet. Well, it couldn't be demonstrated these barges could stand that, and they probably couldn't. And there was less chance of those barges ever being dropped than of a conservative happily paying taxes.

It took them years to get proper permission to move that thing. Sometimes it is ridiculous, folks lose track of the goals.

Arf