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.
That part saddens me a bit. I’m part of the last generation of people that will ever know what the world was like before the net, without reading about it in a history book. It’s like being the person who was born before Tesla and Edison did their thing, and by the time they were an adult, the cities were lit up like giant inverted chandeliers with strange new loud self-powered vehicles starting to fill the streets.
Why are you sad? That’s an awesome thing to get to see. There were some points in history where you wouldn’t see much innovation in your lifetime but we will see tons.
I wonder what things my kids will see that are similar to this? Maybe I’ll catch the start of whatever it is
It is a wonderful transformation that younger people will never be able to appreciate, but of course there are dark sides. We did also lose valuable qualities related to socialization, imagination, physical activity, attention span
Can’t speak for them, but clearly it will be (already is) our downfall