Why am I doing this?

I get asked why, a lot.

I am doing this because not enough is being done! - I have watched as lead has prisoned my community.

I’m the type of person to ask questions, questions that often led me down paths with no clear answers. Over the years I have watched our community health and have wondered why everything seemed so bad. The problem is complex and there are many factors. This prompted years of research and analysis, finding many inconclusive answers along the way. Our society’s health is not attributed to only one thing, it’s so much deeper than that but as one man, I can’t solve all the worlds problems. I decided to pick the most glairing one within my scope. It wasn’t till I found lead levels correlated with many of the hot spots of our societal problems that I really started to dig deeper. In my research, I found that information on lead poisoning is, fragmented, and hard to digest. So much of it is buried under layers of studies, or misinformation. The symptoms of lead poisoning are ubiquitous in our society and often overlap with common, everyday health issues, making it easy to dismiss as just another part of life. But these symptoms are anything but ordinary—they are indicators of something deeply wrong. 

We live in a world where modern complexities only add to the confusion. Lead is not just found in paint and old pipes; it is used in fuels, found in the dust blowing around town, products we use, and in the soil our kids play in. It’s a silent player in a range of health conditions that many don’t even associate with it. The real issue is, most people don’t fully understand how deeply this problem affects their lives, because it’s not always easy to see or connect the dots. 

How can someone truly realize their potential in life if they've been chronically impacted by a toxic substance that has slowly impaired both their mind and body? How can they rise above the challenges lead poisoning creates when it’s so ingrained in our society as “normal”? The even bigger question is: How can I raise awareness when so many people are chronically affected yet believe its a problem of the past?

I decided to conduct independent lead testing, in my own home and around the community. The results shocked me. I found high levels of lead in just about every sample taken. Even worse, the windowsill of my own room had a lead level of 156 µg/ft2 which is 3.9X the EPA standard for hazard action! This felt directly personal; there was no escape. [1]

I searched high and low, hoping someone was already tackling this problem. Hoping there was some progress, some light at the end of the tunnel. But what I found was painful. The voices of those addressing the problem were often underfunded, overshadowed by bigger news stories, or outdated research that suggest the “safe” level of lead is exceedingly high. I came across reports that downplayed the crisis, claiming that the removal of lead from gasoline was the "end of the problem." Even worse, it became apparent that the lead industry spent a tremendous amount of advertising effort downplaying the problem. Even locally some of the worst offenders in my town were being labeled as "low emissions," with claims that we have nothing to worry about. This misinformation keeps people in the dark and allows the problem to persist.

As the years pile on, we continue to poison and do nothing to stop it. As a society we are cause-blind. We fail to educate our people on the dangers of inaction and as a whole we suffer the consequences.