China experts identify drug addiction genes

That looks like a fine way to do a good bit of research: trawling through others studies, and extracting useful information.

Kind Regards....

Sparkstation-It just might be that lead paint they are eating! LOL -James

Hello James,

It's not the folks in China who have been eating the lead paint.

They had vast stocks of it, realised it was toxic, and decided to export it, on the surface of children's toys etc.

Kind Regards...SparkY....

Unless I am "grossly mistaken" (my wife seems to think this is my normal condition), lead only creates problems with learning in infants. I can therefore understand the concern over lead paint in children's toys. Other than that why are we so afraid of lead paint anyway. We almost all had lead paint in our houses on the walls during our formative years. [I dont expect there are too many pre-teens and teenagers on this blog.] Did you or any of your children ever chew on the housepaint at home? I know I never did.

Hello Guest,

Lead paint is a problem from all who meet it.

The danger from lead paint, is that lead compounds are also absorbed through the skin, as well as via the lungs.

As lead paint films get older, the surface spalls off in the form of a fine dust, and may be breathed in.

Because almost all lead compounds are very difficult to eliminate from the body, the heavy metals and their compounds, lead included, normally end up in the brain or nervous system, from where they cannot be removed except by surgery, which is fatal to the patient.

That is the major reason why lead paint has been phased out in countries where the health of the individual person is regarded as important.

Some countries don't care, it's just how the individual is perceived there: Just as an ant, lose a few from the ant's nest...it makes no difference, there are plenty more.

Kind Regards....

Dear GUEST: SPARKSTATION is correct about the dust problem. When I was a young squirt in the U.S. Navy , we used "red lead" primer on the hull of the ship before applying the grey paint. I was sometimes "covered up" with "red lead" primer. We used pneumatic needle guns to remove the old rusty grey paint from the ships metal surface. (lots of dust flying around) I often wonder how much of that dust I inhaled over the course of my 2 years at sea. James