Me. Vs. Lead

Sometimes I think the US takes safety regulations a little too far. I sometimes laugh at plastic coffee lid warnings that the contents may be hot or at the declaration that plastic bags are not toys. Sometimes I wonder if we’re squeezing out personal responsibility. I remember riding a train in Hungary and being astonished that the train door was ajar while we went speeding through the countryside. After registering my initial culturally based shock, I decided that, really, if you’re going to run up to the open door of a rapidly moving train you can’t blame anyone else if you then fall out.

Mexican safety standards are a whole ‘nother bag of fish, though, an almost empty bag it sometimes seems. I like that people are expected to have a little common sense, and that they have to take some responsibility, but I think the lack of safety standards goes way beyond a question of responsibility.

Who isn’t taking responsibility, or course, is everyone who gets away with creating hazards for everyone else, and that bums me out. Living here has made me realize how much I appreciate a lot of the safety regs we have up North, especially the environmental ones. It turns out I’m a big fan of vehicle emissions regulation, hazardous material dumping prohibitions, and product ingredient labeling laws, and, not to be overlooked, the enforcement of all of these.

This brings me to my ongoing battle against lead, just one of the many funks I face down here. Lead, see, can cause brain damage and other health problems and is particularly nasty to the developing brains of fetuses, babies, and children. At least that’s the way I’ve heard it told. You might understand, then, why I’m not a big fan of, say, lead paint, which, while it still exists in the US, is no longer legal to sell. Down here, though, no such prohibition exists. Lead paint, varnishes, sealers, and the like are everywhere.

This has been an ongoing battle because, building a house as we are, we’ve had need to purchase a lot of paints, varnishes, and other house-building-materials-that-could-harm-the-spawn. I try to be careful, but it’s a difficult battle sometimes.

I once asked a vendor for help finding a lead-free wood varnish. He tried to talk me into buying the lead-based option, big and obviously pregnaz as I was… even after I explained that the health risk is both high enough and well documented enough to have made it banned in the US since the 90s.

“But this one will work so much better” didn’t win me over, so I left with the crappy water-based varnish that, it’s true, doesn’t work great, but (I hope) doesn’t harm our health.

What makes avoiding lead paint so much more difficult is that a lot of products don’t contain any kind of ingredient information on the labels. I’ve also found that I can’t just look up this information online, because many Mexican manufacturers don’t even have websites. Finally, the average person doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal, so I get no sympathy or help, except from Hernan, who, it seems, is pretty much the only one who believes me.

The lead-battle is just the one we fight the most often. There are other battles, like asbestos roofs and water tanks, but they come up less frequently.

Consumer education would be a great thing.

Now, the US is far from a model of product safety, but, by comparison…I guess it kind of is. I suppose I’m pretty pro-regulation.