@Einion: Your point is valid and I won't argue against it. One thing though, while most companies have gone over to white metal, there are quite a few left that do cast in lead-based metals.
Which ones?
And the skin is certainly not a good barrier against such small particles, most cases of lead poisoning comes from handling lead, not eating it.
To put it in Wikipedia terms, citation needed.
I'm sorry but it's well known that lead poisoning is largely due to ingestion, with inhalation being the secondary risk. The risk from getting it (or lead compounds) on the skin is from then putting the fingers in the mouth or transferring it to something that is subsequently ingested.
And about the paints being poisonous, more and more of the ranges go through extreme testings nowadays to ensure that there are no dangerous toxins in them since so many young actually eat them for real.
It's not about being directly poisonous as we'd generally understand it, it's about effects that may show up over the long term, particularly due to
synergistic toxicity which is where a lot of the trouble lies.
But quite apart from that, one can't assume that the danger to each of us as an individual is low since it might be much higher than the norm - this is exactly why one lucky guy can smoke five packs of cigs a day for 60 years and die quietly in their sleep aged 81 and another person who is only exposed to secondhand smoke gets lung cancer and dies in their 30s.
Yes not licking your brush will make you flaccid. That is our bottom line. Flaccid!
ROFL
Oh and :lying:
Completely of topic. Without sounding too condescending this is very good example of why general public should avoid reading articles about reviews like this. Nobody in the right mind would claim the nutritional value (counted as concentration of nutrients, vitamins and minerals) should be different in organic food vs "inorganic" - genetically, they are the same.
Eh? But that is
exactly the claim made consistently by organic food producers, sellers and buyers; they are not the same according to them.
The core of the organic food thesis is that organic farming yields food that is higher in nutrients ...hence the focus of the study... than the non-organic equivalent, in addition to being free from any pesticide residue. As I understand it those were
the two supposed advantages.
What would be interesting to know whether the amount on non-nutrition compounds such as - heavy metals, pesticide, xenobiotics etc differs between the two. After all this is the major claim difference between organic vs inorganic.
We should not be interested in whether one has health benefits over the other but rather is there potential harm. This is completely different question that actually matters (as opposed to health benefit).
Detrimental health effects should be covered by the issue of
health benefit and only if the report specifically ignores any detrimental effect (to the individual) can this case be made, otherwise it's just a sophist point.
I say this because it doesn't... not mentioned on the BBC page, but covered in newspaper articles which go into more detail, is the issue of fungal toxins which is never even brought up by proponents of organic food.
As for "safety" of brush-licking. Let's put it this way. GW is a toy company and is regulated as such, at least in USA. In theory, products manufactured by toy companies should be safe even for internal use.
This sounds good in theory - in support one would need to contact GW and ask them directly if one, their paint is safe to ingest, and two, whether they recommend the practice. Then compare their answers to the same two questions posed to other paintmakers.
I know the answer from Golden for example, and I know the pigments used in a number of the VMC paints from another member's email correspondence with them, so let's just say I'm pretty confident who's on firm ground here.
I lick my brush... how the hell else are you supposed to get a fine point on the brush after you are done using it?
Good question: you can simply roll the brush in the crease of your palm.
This is a pretty good synopsis of Penn & Teller's show
http://notstepfordwives.com/?p=1132 dealing with organic food, season 7 episode 6. If you get the chance to see it, it's fairly enlightening.
A couple of salient points they raise about organic methods of farming related to potential toxins:
1. Fertilizers and pesticides used may not have been properly tested for human consumption.
2. Due to lower potency, more of each are usually required. This may create greater exposure to introduced toxins.
From a general green standpoint, the current methods of organic farming would mean a substantial proportion of the world's population would have to starve due to the inefficiency/poor yield of this method of farming, and also a substantial increase in the use of water. In my opinion, this whole movement is almost diametrically opposed to the sustainable use of our resources, and is more a luxury than anything else.
:good: :good: :good:
Einion