Half of US adults exposed to harmful lead levels as kids
The main thrust of this article is the drop in IQ from lead exposure. What has also been scientifically proven is that lead in the environment increases violence:Over 170 million U.S.-born people who were adults in 2015 were exposed to harmful levels of lead as children, a new study estimates.
Researchers used blood-lead level, census and leaded gasoline consumption data to examine how widespread early childhood lead exposure was in the country between 1940 and 2015.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, they estimated that half the U.S. adult population in 2015 had been exposed to lead levels surpassing five micrograms per deciliter - the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention threshold for harmful lead exposure at the time.
The scientists from Florida State University and Duke University also found that 90% of children born in the U.S. between 1950 and 1981 had blood-lead levels higher than the CDC threshold. And the researchers found significant impact on cognitive development: on average, early childhood exposure to lead resulted in a 2.6-point drop in IQ.
The researchers only examined lead exposure caused by leaded gasoline, the dominant form of exposure from the 1940s to the late 1980s, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Leaded gasoline for on-road vehicles was phased out starting in the 1970s, then finally banned in 1996.
Study lead author Michael McFarland, an associate professor of sociology at Florida State University, said the findings were "infuriating" because it was long known that lead exposure was harmful, based on anecdotal evidence of lead's health impacts throughout history.
A Mother Jones article was most notable for exposing this. The following is from a 2020 article:Childhood exposure to lead dust has been linked to lasting physical and behavioral effects, and now lead dust from vehicles using leaded gasoline has been linked to instances of aggravated assault two decades after exposure, according to researchers.
Lead dust is linked to violence, study suggests
Childhood exposure to lead dust has been linked to lasting physical and behavioral effects, and now lead dust from vehicles using leaded gasoline has been linked to instances of aggravated assault two decades after exposure, according to researchers.www.sciencedaily.com
Two more MJ articles from 2016 and 2018:I can’t fool you guys. You know what I’m going to say, don’t you? A likely explanation for this is that in 2015, when this data was collected, 20-year-olds were born around 1995 and grew up lead free. This means they were far less likely to act out violently than in the past. Conversely, 40-year-olds were born around 1975, right near the peak of the lead poisoning epidemic. They are part of the most violent, explosive generation in US history.
This is the saddest part of lead poisoning: it scars your brain development as a child and there’s no cure. If you’re affected by it and are more aggressive and violent as a result, you will be that way for the rest of your life.
Lead poisoning and domestic violence
www.motherjones.com
Lead: America's Real Criminal Element - Mother Jones
An Updated Lead-Crime Roundup for 2018 - Mother Jones
So absolutely proven that lead is horribly bad for people. Then you can imagine my surprise to find the following in my local newspaper:So much for buying organic! And these products are still on the shelves for consumers to buy and feed to their children. Only a conspiracy theorist would read anything nefarious into this.