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Okay, anyone who takes medical advice from a blog w/o checking with their doctor is stupid, but I still feel compelled to say it:
Iron poisoning is the leading cause of poisoning death in children under 6 (usually from getting into adult vitamins). FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, do not start dosing your children with potentially-fatal doses of iron to get the lead out of their systems! See the damn doctor!
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And chelation therapy is extremely painful and requires hospitalization. Or at least it did when I was in nursing school. Just on my pediatric rotation, we saw the same little kid come in three times for chelation. Because of that, it's impossible for me to treat the Chinese lead-paint news casually. No one should.
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Coming next on Consumerist: Do-it-yourself Brain Surgery.
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I think over on Valleywag there's an emergency tracheotomy guide. If you have to use a ballpoint pen, just be sure to use one with black ink, not blue. Or red. Because that's just creepy
@erica.blog: Ooh, trepanation! I've been suitably out-commented. Good show!
I guess I should say something about leeches or... bilious humour...
Holy flaming fleams!
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Ok, so yeah it's already been stated, but eating lots of iron DOES NOT chelate lead and remove it from the body. Lead and Iron will not bind to one another.
A person who has a healthy amount of iron absorbed already (through good nutrition) will be less suceptible to lead poisoning because your body is less likely to absorb the lead if you have lots of iron.
However, iron DOES NOT remove lead from the body by some automagic chemistry. If you suspect lead poisoning, seek medical attention IMMEDIATELY.
Btw, I quickly skimmed the WebMD article that supposedly claimed that iron removes lead from the body and saw no such reference. I typically find the Consumerist a pretty good source of information, but this should be changed immediately as it is incorrect and poor advice that could be construed as medical- as has been said previously, iron poisoning is just as deadly as lead poisoning.
See a doctor, not a website, regarding suspected lead poisoning.
( @ BEN mainly)
As pretty much most of the commenters seem to recognize, stop at step 2 (the doctor) and ask her or him about steps 3 and 4!
There is a relation between iron deficiency and lead absorption rates, but it doesn't involve iron \"binding\" to lead. On the other hand, iron poisoning is a real risk and way more of a problem than lead poisoning in tots. Let's not have anyone pull out the .357 to shoot the mosquito off the baby's forehead.
Don't you think you guys are scaremongering just a little bit?
Theres been a massive recall of toys not a massive lead poisoning. No one is freaking out because they have just ate 3 batman figures and are now afraid they might have an unacceptable level of lead in their system.
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Interesting, while watching good morning america (funny show by the way), they said there was no way to remove lead from the body besides medical avenues.