Is your heart feeling heavy after hearing about Stanley cups?

You may have heard the news that everyone was a little worried about their Stanley cups' lead content for a few days. After the fears being mostly swept away (the only lead content is a pellet that's behind a cover under the bottom of the tumblers), it's still a great reminder that there are dangerous substances in our environments that can be harmful if we don't take the necessary precautions.

So, do we need to be worried about lead exposure? How seriously do we need to be taking all those jokes about eating lead paint chips?

Here's a video under three minutes that explains the symptoms of lead exposure, the activities that may expose you to lead, and how you can protect yourself.

According to Mayo Clinic, symptoms of lead poisoning in adults include: 

• High blood pressure
• Joint and muscle pain
• Difficulties with memory or concentration
• Headache
• Abdominal pain
• Mood disorders

The group with by far the highest exposure is children (more on that here), but we like to focus on occupational exposure around here, so according to the CDC here's some instances where you might be exposed to lead in the workplace:

"Although children are at greater risk from lead exposure, adult exposures can also result in harmful health effects.

• Most adult exposures are occupational and occur in lead-related industries such as [CDC 2016]
  • Manufacturing,
  • Construction,
  • Services, and
  • Mining.
    
• One frequent source of lead exposure to adults is home renovation that involves
  • Scraping,
  • Remodeling, or
  • Otherwise disturbing lead-based paint.

Renovation involving lead based paint should only be undertaken after proper training, or with the use of certified personnel (see EPA’s Safe Renovation brochure at http://www2.epa.gov/lead/lead-safecertified-guide-renovate-right.

Adults can also be exposed during certain hobbies and activities where lead is used [CDC 2011a]. Some of the more common examples include

• Artistic painting,
• Car repair,
• Electronics soldering,
• Glazed pottery making,
• Metal soldering,
• Molding of bullets, slugs, or fishing sinkers,
• Stained-glass making, and
• Shooting firearms.

Tobacco smoke is a source of lead [Apostolou et al. 2012; Mannino et al. 2005; Mannino et al. 2003]."

So unless you're tampering with the bottom of your Stanley cups, there's not too much to worry about, but lead exposure in general is not something to take lightly. Make sure you know your facts.