Letter: Lead in the environment

I am writing in response to Peggy Ollerhead’s op-ed, “Protect our children from Hudbay lead danger,” which rightly condemns Hudbay’s dangerous waste disposal plan because of potentially exposing nearby residents, including children, to lead contamination. As a geology student at the University of Arizona, I co-produced an informational video documenting the history of lead contamination in the U.S. in which I interviewed Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha on her work during the Flint Michigan crisis of elevated lead in drinking water. For even worse lead contamination, it is important to acknowledge the damage done by adding lead to gasoline in the 20th century, which disseminated lead across all environments and was arguably the largest ecological catastrophe in U.S. history because of wreaking incalculable harm to people. For example, a recent study showed that poisoning from leaded gas blunted the IQ of about half the U.S. population. People, especially children, must not be exposed to ingestible lead again.