Hello,

I'm new to the group and happy to be participating. I'm a retired
physician living in the States. My name is Conrad. Three years or so
ago lead poisoning was absolutely the farthest thing from my mind.
Before that, the last time I had even thought about lead poisoning
was more than 30 years ago in medical school. I read a few paragraphs
in a textbook, regurgitated the information for a test, and then
forgot about it. I've spent most of my career in research, not in
patient care.

One day while making a household repair I noticed that the rosin-core
solder I was using (and had been using off and on for more than 30
years) contained lead. For some reason whenever I thought of lead
solder (which I seldom did) I always thought of plumber's solder,
never rosin-core solder. For those of you who don't know, rosin-core
solder is used to weld together, in conjunction with a hot soldering
iron, two of more components of an electrical circuit, two wires
twisted together for example.

Knowing that my father had worked extensively with rosin solder (as
well as wiping solder [another lead-based solder] and lead-sheathed
telephone cable) in his job with the Western Electric Co., a unit of
the Bell Telephone System, when I was very young, (he also did some
soldering at home) I decided to go to the library and do a little
more reading. After visiting a dozen or more libraries, many more
than once, plus the U.S. National Archives plus Internet auction
sites, what I learned changed my life. I now believe that my father,
mother, brother, and I all had lead poisoning beginning in the early
1940s. I don't think exposure completely ended until the mid-`50s.

Inexplicable family events (most of which I had witnessed) going back
to my very earliest childhood suddenly began to make sense. Things
like; headaches, emotional irritability, juvenile delinquency, speech
impediment, problems in school, impotence, carious teeth, etc. All
this and more I have documented on my website,
Bellsystemleadpoisoning.com.

I would love to hear from anyone who has any insight or information
on any of this. I also welcome any questions or comments about my
website.


Regards, Conrad