Millions of Mental Health Disorders in U.S.
Caused by Lead Poisoning
"A significant burden of mental illness symptomatology and disadvantageous personality differences can be attributed to US children's exposure to lead over the past 75 years."
The above quote is from The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Contribution of Childhood Lead Exposure to Psychopathology in the US Population Over the Past 75 Years by Aaron Reuben, Michael J. McFarland, and Matt Hauer.
Below are excerpts from a CNN article by Madeline Holcombe, Research Shows More Than 150 Million Mental Diagnoses May Be Linked to Lead in Gasoline, published on 12/04/2024.
A history of lead in gasoline may be behind tens of millions of mental health conditions in the United States...
"We've shifted the curve in the population for mental health problems, so that everyone has a greater liability in the mental illness symptoms, and that some people who were already at risk are going to develop diagnosable disorders sooner, more often or more kinds," said coauthor of the study Dr. Aaron Reuben, assistant professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Virginia.
The study published Wednesday in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry estimates that about 151 million mental disorder diagnoses in the US are attributable to lead. The exposure likely would not have happened had lead not been in gasoline, Reuben added...
"Millions of Americans are walking around with an unknown, invisible history of lead exposure that has likely influenced for the worse how they think, feel and behave."
Lead is a potent neurotoxin and can disrupt brain development in many ways that can impact most types of mental health problems, including anxiety, depression and ADHD...
"It also changed personalities. We believe that (lead exposure) makes people a little less conscientious—so less well organized, less detail-oriented, less likely to be able to pursue their goals in an organized way, and more neurotic," Reuben added.
A 12/04/2024 NeuroscienceNews.com article, Leaded Gas Exposure Linked to Mental Illness provides additional information.
A new study estimates that childhood lead exposure, peaking between 1960 and 1990 due to leaded gasoline, caused 151 million excess cases of mental illness by 2015. Researchers linked historic lead exposure data to mental health symptoms, finding that personality changes and mental health disorders were most pronounced among Generation X.
This underscores the lasting impact of environmental toxins on public health, with leaded gasoline serving as a cautionary tale for prioritizing profit over safety. The findings highlight the need to address environmental risks proactively to prevent long-term societal harm.
Though lead was removed from automotive fuel more than 25 years ago, piston-engine aircraft used by flight training schools, private pilots, hobbyists and others continue to use leaded avgas. Seventy percent of all airborne lead emissions in the U.S., 470 tons per year, are released by general aviation pilots who continue to pump lead into the air with abandon, despite the well-documented adverse impacts of this pernicious neurotoxin. Though commercial jets contribute to global warming and emit a number of toxic chemicals, jet fuel does not contain lead.
In Oregon, the largest facility sources of lead in the majority of the 36 counties throughout the state are airports. Washington County, the second most populated county in the state, is also the most lead polluted due primarily to relentless flight training and recreational flying over homes, neighborhoods, schools, day care centers, recreational areas, waterways and agricultural lands.
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