Summary
Childhood lead exposure from leaded gasoline caused 151 million additional psychiatric illnesses in the U.S. between 1940 and 2015, according to new research.
Peak exposure occurred for Generation X (1966–1986 births) due to widespread use of leaded gasoline before its 1996 ban.
The study links lead exposure to higher rates of depression, anxiety, ADHD, and altered personality traits, including increased neuroticism and reduced conscientiousness.
Lead pollution also caused a collective loss of 824 million IQ points in Americans.
I 100% agree with you. I’ve worked some jobs for companies with access to large swaths of data and one of the…say…more interesting patterns I saw was lead exposure areas of the US and how that area did when it came to education, voting, welfare program use, and other statistics.
The difference is significant and noticeable by anyone with eyes.
It probably helps if you don’t have lead plated neurons too.
But yeah, just looked it up and I’m kinda surprised. It’s the Midwest and Florida. Like it tracks, but I’m surprised we beat Mississippi in childhood blood lead content