[newaccount74]

I don't understand how lead pigments are still legal in some parts of the world at all. What kind of things need a bright yellow color that will slowly poison you if you touch it?

Also, those handheld XRF spectrometers are amazing tech. I wish they were more affordable.

[notjulianjaynes]

Lead pigments are still legal in the United States[1], and were only banned in the EU a few years ago[2].

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4434842/

[2] https://speciation.net/News/EU-court-rules-Commission-author...

[jabl]

In Europe, many countries banned lead paints for household use already in the 1920'ies or even earlier. In 2003 there was an EU wide harmonization outlawing lead paints. The article you linked to is apparently about some lawsuit where the EU commission had allowed an exception to this.

[notjulianjaynes]

Ah, it appears I was mistaken then thanks for the clarification.

[adamwong246]

> "Why? For the same reason our reactors do not have containment buildings around them, like those in the West. For the same reason we don't use properly enriched fuel in our cores. For the same reason we are the only nation that builds water-cooled, graphite-moderated reactors with a positive void coefficient. It's cheaper." ~ Valery Legasov, Chernobyl

[asdff]

USSR could have really been something if only they adopted the US model of just not saving money

[asdff]

A lot of oil paint for fine art contains heavy metals.

[db48x]

And a layer of varnish over the top so that you can’t even touch the paint, even if you are rude enough to try.