On Thursday, the FDA issued a warning that the ground cinnamon sold at The Dollar Store, Family Dollar and similar discount chains is tainted with lead. I didn’t have to read the rest of the article to find out why it would be bad to eat cinnamon with lead in it, because I am aware that lead is dangerous to consume, just like everyone else who has been alive this century.
Or so I thought.
Turns out, there is indeed a pro-lead contingent, and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is in it.
During Thursday night’s State of the Union, President Joe Biden pointed out some of the benefits of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, including (still to come) removing “poisonous lead pipes so every child can drink clean water without risk of brain damage.”
But Kobach was having none of it. None. Of. It.
“Biden wants to replace lead pipes,” he tweeted. “He failed to mention that the unfunded mandate sets an almost impossible timeline, will cost billions, infringe on the rights of the States and their residents – all for benefits that may be entirely speculative.”
Speculative? It’s lead. Again, we all know that lead is bad and that it causes brain damage. As the AP explained in the aforementioned cinnamon article, “there is no safe level of lead exposure for humans” and “[l]ong-term exposure of lead can cause problems, especially in growing children, including learning disabilities, behavioral difficulties and lower IQ.”
As far as rights go, last I checked, no one was taking to the streets demanding their right to drink more lead-tainted water.
Perhaps Kobach is concerned that, without a certain amount of lead in his diet, he won’t be able to come up with creative ideas like forcing teachers to out trans kids to their parents or denying compensation to wrongly convicted people who were exonerated based on “ineffective assistance of counsel.”
If this is true, allow me to propose a compromise: We get rid of the lead pipes as planned, and, as a gesture of goodwill to Kris Kobach, we will bless him with a lifetime supply of Dollar Store cinnamon so that he can maintain his desired daily lead intake levels. There’s something for everybody! People who want to drink clean, lead-free water get that and Kris Kobach gets all the delicious, brain damage-inducing lead he can shove in his face.
Fair?
PREVIOUSLY:
I added lead to my diet to reduce cardiac knocking.
I was at a public comment session on lead ammo and hunting several years ago. Members of the pro-lead group mentioned over and over that lead wasn't really dangerous because 'it's natural'. An anti-lead hunter strolled up to the podium with a bottle of water containing lead ammo. He chewed them out and invited them to drink from it, leaving it behind so they would have plenty of chances. No one took him up on it. Glorious.