151 Million People Affected: New Study Reveals That Leaded Gas Permanently Damaged American Mental Health
151 Million People Affected: New Study Reveals That Leaded Gas Permanently Damaged American Mental Health
Looks around at the trump world… yep
Yup. About half of them voted this last election.
There's a lesson to be learned here:
Remove lead? Industry fights it. Lead gets removed. Industry is fine.
Acid rain? Industry fights it. Sulfur dioxide emissions reduced. Industry is fine.
Hole in ozone layer? Industry fights it. PFCs removed. Industry just fine.
Global warming? Industry fights it...
But the industry WASN'T fine. They lost a fraction of a fraction of a percent in profits by going for the cleaner, safer options. How can you be so heartless.
Clearly nobody has thought about the corpo parasite mate...
There is an issue of scale in that series. The first three are relatively small cost fixes. Addressing global climate change requires fundamentally reconfiguring all industry, globally at the very least. That's orders of magnitude more costly than the first three fixes. And it's orders of magnitude more difficult to get done politically, and engineering-wise.
But beyond that it may require massive reductions in consumption, trade and transportation. Possibly even short term remediation efforts like sprinkling silver dust in the stratosphere, which is estimated to cost in the hundred trillion dollar range.
I like that your comment shows that progress can be made against entrenched powerful interests though.
I get the feeling that in 50yrs there'll be an article about how micro plastics have caused an excess of autism, ADHD, gay, bi/pan, and trans people. I know the current theory is that we're just more aware of these things now than we were 20yrs ago, but iirc there is a correlational link between some plastics and autism and adhd. Additionally, anecdotally, I swear to god there are so many people I've met with ADHD and/or autism that it makes me wonder how neurotypical people ended up running the world. Same with people who're LGBT, especially trans people. Makes me wonder if there's a similar correlational link between some plastics and being gender/sexually diverse.
Edit: since I'm seeing some downvotes I'd like to clarify that I'm not trying to imply that there's anything wrong with being LGBT or neurodivergent; I fall into both groups. However it seems like I've met an astonishingly high number of people who also fit into both groups.
I have to disagree with this. As a 40-something bi man, I can tell you for a fact the LGBTQ community fully existed 30 years ago, but the majority culture was not accepting of it, so it was underground. ADHD and autism, same thing. Only the most severe cases were diagnosed in the 90s, whereas today evaluations for both are routine, as are treatments
The cases are on average more extreme now though.
My dad’s full side is ADHD/ASD. But the millennials/genZs have more severe cases than their uncles and great uncles did.
You can look at all the related disorders that are often comorbid like autoimmune, thyroid, MCAS, etc.
Look at conditions like Type1 diabetes which is growing ~3% per year! This isn’t just better diagnostics but explained by the stress diathesis model of disease interacting with our modern synthetic world.
NTs aren't running the world. Workaholic sociopaths are running the world.
NDs are becoming more and more socially accepted, and less willing to subjugate themselves. "Neurodivergent" seems to be a misnomer: NTs only seem to be "typical" when NDs closet themselves and try to emulate them.
*shrugs* I'm not as up-to-date on ND research, so your stance about ND/NT possibly being a misnomer is new to me. The first part is a good point though.
Women with ADHD went so underdiagnosed that it's considered an epidemic.
Women over the age of 35 were straight up not diagnosed because "girls don't get ADHD." So I do somewhat disagree with your premise.
Under that age, too... Just turned 30 this year, still working my way around to doing research to find a provider to diagnose me. Which, with the nature of the condition that could take... a while, ha.
Seems weird to assume that LGBTQ people must be the victim of something in order to be the way they are. It's wild to assume that neutrotypical people run the world. If this article says anything, it's that a generation of mentally challenged people primarily run the world and that absolutely tracks when I look around at the maga movement.
Bruh, I'm literally in both groups. I'm LGBT and neurodivergent. I'm not saying micro plastics are necessary for someone to be gay or neurodivergent, nor am I saying that it's bad. Do you see it as being a negative when people try to figure out what leads to people being gay or autistic? I don't. That's just scientific curiosity.
Edit: clarified a sentence
it makes me wonder how neurotypical people ended up running the world
Unless you're being sarcastic, this is absolutely not the case.
it'll probably be the 'forever chemicals' (e.g. pfas) but yea, same deal.
I think the increase in LGBTQ+ people is just due to increased social acceptance. More people feel comfortable coming out these days, when in the past they might have repressed their feelings.
I think it's mostly because today's society has less room for neuro divergent personalities. Even in the 80s it was much more socially acceptable to have a blue collar factory or farming job that didn't require super much intellectual focus or social skills etc. That is not the case in todays society. Western countries (and especially the US) were much more economically equal back then as well, i.e. you could live a much better life on a blue collar income.
You don't look for a diagnosis unless your personality has an apparent negative impact on your life. And back then it didn't, as much. I believe.
Society also had odd little release valves for neurodivergents which bizarrely enough could include parts of the military. Most of those are gone though in exchange at least we get treatment more readily than back then
There was a recent Australian study that found a link between BPAs and autism, although I find it hard to believe there's a 1-to-1 link, as autism was a thing before plastics were invented.
Have you met these people IRL or online? Most of the people I've met online do fall into one of those two buckets, but almost nobody I've met IRL does.
I would assume this is selection bias before attributing it to some other thing. The kinds of circles you run in are going to heavily affect this.
I'm not sure the typical part is so typical after all. Given the size and complexity of our brains and the difference in DNA between us, I think more or less every family has their own ways of thinking and acting.
This is why boomers hate their children.
And they vote.
Don’t aircraft still use leaded fuel to this day?
Only some small piston based aircraft engines. Commercial aviation doesn't use lead. It's not great, but it's not a particularly significant amount.
Jet aircraft use jet fuel(more refined Kerosene).
So uh, there was some studying being done at my local university about mapping health issues for residents living closer to airports and.... It ain't too great. :(
That's probably related to all the other chemicals they use at airports (eg forever chemicals in fire retardant). 100LL (100 octane low lead) is only used in small piston engines, which is a very small population. They're trying alternatives that don't use lead, but I'm reading that the top contender is eating through paint and possibly gaskets and seals in the plane, which isn't safe either.
Yes. My boomer father drives to airports to get leaded gas for his lawn equipment and generators. He thinks I'm over reacting when I refuse to be near any of that shit when it's running.
151 million? That number seems low to me....
I think that's about the amount of people who were are currently alive, that had been born by the time leaded gas was banned, maybe a little bit less.
Wonder what we'll find out the lunchables have done to us.
do you have eyes?
I guess this explains Boomers
Gen X voted for Trump in greater numbers. We need to admit that half of Americans just fucking suck in general.
Gen X was still knee deep in lead emissions.
Also, both groups have had a stranglehold on mainstream media, normalizing their sociopathy for the next generations.
Over 75 years, Hauer said lead exposure doubled the risk of schizophrenia for 89 million Americans, while quadrupling the risk of attention deficit disorder (ADHD) among another 170 million U.S. adults. The research also found a spike in anxiety, depression and neuroticism and a decrease in conscientiousness over the same period.
The authors note that lead exposures would have also occurred from lead pipes, contaminated food and soil, and airborne dust from lead-emitting industries and waste incineration, among other sources. However, all of the mental health disorders tracked in the study rose and fell with the prevalence of lead in gasoline.
like how is that news? we see them all the time.
Not sure if this is offtopic but...
My parents grew up in China but still emotionally abusive af, did China also have leaded gasoline, or did the wind just blew all the toxicity of lead from the US all the way across the world? (None of us even stepped foot in the US until like around 2010s, I think leaded gas was already banned by then...) 🤔
Or maybe my parents are just naturally born toxic... 😓
China didn't ban it until 2000.
It's still legal in like Afghanistan and North Korea.
Japan was the first to ban it in 1986.
Edit: to answer your question more accurately, any country with vehicles that had engines prone to knocking had it. So yes, it was very much in the atmosphere of China.
They used lead for sure, but there might have been fewer cars depending on where they lived.
Lead is probably one of the least bad things you've inhaled if you lived in a Chinese large or industrial city between 2000 and 2024. So you're likely tainted as well. Sorry.
We all still get mercury from the food because many countries still allow burning waste/garbage in outdated plants without proper smoke cleaning installed. And then it spreads through the atmosphere and gets into the local food cycle when it rains. This effect is global. That's why you shouldn't eat fish from lakes if you're pregnant etc. Doesn't matter where you live.
You still have exposure even with wind.
I had trouble understanding the standard deviations in the study so had chatgpt translate them into terms I could understand.
FYI:
-
General Psychopathology Factor (g-factor):
- The "602-million General Psychopathology factor points" refers to the cumulative impact of leaded gasoline exposure across the U.S. population on a mental health risk measure.
- A 0.13 standard deviation increase means that, on average, the population's liability to mental illness shifted slightly higher. While it's hard to translate standard deviations into percentages directly, a 0.13 SD is considered a small effect, equivalent to about a 5.2% increase in risk when interpreted broadly.
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151 Million Excess Mental Disorders:
- This means that, due to lead exposure, there were 151 million additional cases of mental disorders in the U.S. population over time. This doesn't mean 151 million people, as some individuals might have more than one disorder.
-
Internalizing Symptoms:
- Internalizing symptoms (like anxiety and depression) showed a 0.64 standard deviation increase. This is a medium-to-large effect size and can be roughly understood as a 24% increase in these symptoms across the population.
-
AD/HD Symptoms:
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder symptoms increased by 0.42 standard deviations, which is a moderate effect size. This corresponds to about a 16.5% increase in population-level AD/HD symptoms.
-
Personality Traits (Neuroticism and Conscientiousness):
- Neuroticism (tendency to experience negative emotions) increased by 0.14 standard deviations (a small effect, about a 5.6% increase).
- Conscientiousness (self-discipline and organization) decreased by 0.20 standard deviations, which is a slightly larger small effect, about an 8% decrease.
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The time frames seem a bit odd in their study and the most affected being born as late as 1986. Mainly because most vehicles in the US in the 1970's ran on unleaded fuel already (ford didnt build a leaded vehicle past 74 or 75) and cars from the 70's were lucky to be on the road a decade later. I would have thought the most effected would have been pre 1980. The US may not have banned it until 1996, but by that point 99% of cars touching the roads were already lead free.
Is there any similar study done on hunters or people who eat meat from animals shot with lead bullets? Sometimes I wonder if lead from bullets make gun slingers and game meat eaters more retarded. I.e. MAGA folks basically.
Lead from bullets in wild game are a non issue generally. It's not staying in the animal long enough to leech out.
However, casting your own bullets from spent ones without proper safety equipment(happens WAY more than you'd think, especially amongst prepper types), handling them a lot and not washing your hands after, and generally being exposed to lead dust IS a problem.
I hate that I know all that, but being in an unfortunate proximity to those types of individuals has taught me a lot.
Yes, that happens for sure. I did look into making my own ammunition, but it's just not worth it. Even though ammunition is really expensive nowadays.
Also, I've only been using non-lead bullets for non-practice. But I wouldn't dare tell the old guys. ;-)
Most older experienced hunters I know did cast their own practice ammo at some point in their life. Probably on their kitchen table without any safety equipment.
That wouldn't be enough to cause real damage tbh.
Lead is toxic but you still need quite a bit of it and it's absorbed wildly differently based on medium. That's why the Romans could have lead pipes that were mostly not that dangerous due to their water being very hard while leaded gasoline used tetraethyl lead which is more potent and it's inhaled rather than ingested.
Basically eating/drinking lead contaminated resources only give you like 1-10% of the actual poison while inhaling gives you the full 100%
You're correct. The risk is there, but it's not high.
It has been known for centuries that lead is toxic to humans. Chronic exposure to lead, even at low levels, is associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease in adults and of impaired neurodevelopment and subsequent cognitive and behavioural development in the foetus and young children. Health agencies throughout the world have moved from assuming that there are tolerable levels of exposure to lead to a recognition that valid ‘no-effect’ thresholds cannot currently be defined. Formerly, the most important exposure pathways were occupational exposure, water from lead plumbing, paints, petrol additives and foods. Regulation of products and improved health and safety procedures at work have left dietary lead as the main remaining pathway of exposure in European countries. Ammunition-derived lead is now a significant cause of dietary lead exposure in groups of people who eat wild game meat frequently. These are mostly hunters, shoot employees and their families, but also some people who choose to eat game for ethical, health or other reasons, and their children. Extrapolation from surveys conducted in the UK and a review of studies of game consumption in other countries suggest that approximately 5 million people in the EU may be high-level consumers of lead-shot game meat and that tens of thousands of children in the EU may be consuming game contaminated with ammunition-derived lead frequently enough to cause significant effects on their cognitive development.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6675757/
Apparently, the human stomach dissolves small bullet fragments of metallic lead. That's probably bad.
Experiments of solubility showed that lead fragments from bullets dissolve in chlo- ric acid of the same concentration as in the stomach of humans
Lol painting with a pretty broad brush there, ain'cha?
Maybe research your hypothesis a bit before you wildly lump sustenance hunters, omnivores, and gun owners as being "[stupid] MAGA folks basically" by default because they've...(flips papers)...'Handled ammunition before.' lol