Lead Exposure Erodes American Mental Wellbeing

Introduction

A new study estimates that exposure to leaded car exhaust during childhood altered the balance of mental health in the American population, making generations of Americans more depressed, anxious, and inattentive or hyperactive. Research estimates that 151 million cases of psychiatric disorders over the past 75 years have resulted from American children’s exposure to lead.

Main article

In 1923, lead was first added to gasoline to help keep automobile engines in good condition. However, the car’s health came at the expense of our own well-being.

The findings, by Aaron Reuben, a postdoctoral researcher in neuropsychology at Duke University, and colleagues at Florida State University, suggest that Americans born before 1996 experienced significantly higher rates of mental health problems as a result of lead, and They probably experienced changes in their personalities. that would have made them less successful and resilient in life.

Leaded gasoline for cars was banned in the United States in 1996, but researchers say anyone born before then, and especially during the peak of its use in the 1960s and 1970s, had worryingly high lead exposure. when I was a child.

The team article will appear the week of December 4, 2024, in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Lead is neurotoxic and can erode brain cells and alter brain function once it enters the body. As such, there is no safe level of exposure at any time in life, health experts say. Young children are especially vulnerable to lead’s ability to impair brain development and impair brain health. Unfortunately, no matter our age, our brains are not equipped to keep lead toxicity at bay.

Because water systems in older American cities still contain lead pipes, the EPA issued regulations in October giving cities 10 years to identify and replace lead pipes, and $2.6 billion to do so. Earlier this year, the EPA also lowered the level of lead in soil that it considers potentially hazardous, resulting in about 1 in 4 American homes having soil that may require cleaning.

“Humans are not adapted to be exposed to lead at the levels we have been exposed to over the past century,” Reuben said. “We have very few effective measures to deal with lead once it is in the body, and many of us have been exposed to levels 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than is natural.”

Over the past century, lead was used in paint, pipes, solder, and, most disastrously, automobile fuel. Numerous studies have linked lead exposure to mental health and neurodevelopmental problems, particularly conduct disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and depression. But until now it was unclear how widespread lead-related symptoms of mental illness would have been.

To answer the complex question of how the use of leaded gas for more than 75 years may have left a permanent mark on human psychology, Reuben and his co-authors Michael McFarland and Mathew Hauer, both professors of sociology at Florida State University, , they turned to publicly available information. national level data.

Using historical data on children’s blood lead levels in the US, leaded gas use, and demographic statistics, they determined the likely burden of lifetime lead exposure borne by each child. American alive in 2015. From this data, they estimated lead’s attack on mental health and personality. calculating “mental illness points” earned from exposure to lead gas as an indicator of its harmful impact on public health.

“This is the exact approach we have taken in the past to estimate the harms of lead to the cognitive ability and IQ of the population,” McFarland said, noting that the research team previously identified that lead stole 824 million points IQ of the American population during the last century.

“We saw very significant changes in mental health across generations of Americans,” Hauer said. “Which means that many more people experienced psychiatric problems than they would have if we had never added lead to gasoline.”

Lead exposure led to higher rates of diagnosable mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, but also higher rates of people experiencing milder distress that would affect their quality of life.

“For most people, the impact of lead would have been like a mild fever,” Reuben said. “You wouldn’t go to the hospital or seek treatment, but it would cost you a little more than if you didn’t have a fever.”

The effect of lead on brain health has also been linked to changes in personality that are manifesting on a national level.

“We estimate a change in neuroticism and conscientiousness at the population level,” McFarland said.

In 2015, more than 170 million Americans (more than half of the U.S. population) had clinically concerning levels of lead in their blood as children, likely resulting in lower IQ and more sleep problems. mental health, and probably put them at greater risk. for other long-term health problems, such as increased cardiovascular disease.

Consumption of leaded gasoline increased rapidly in the early 1960s and peaked in the 1970s. As a result, Reuben and his colleagues found that virtually everyone born during those two decades had almost certainly been exposed to leaded gasoline levels. harmful lead emissions from automobile exhaust. The generation with the greatest lead exposure, Generation X (1965-1980), would have suffered the greatest mental health losses.

“We are beginning to understand that past lead exposures, even decades ago, can influence our health today,” Reuben said. “Our job going forward will be to better understand the role lead has played in our country’s health and ensure we protect today’s children from new lead exposures wherever they occur.”

Citation:

“Contribution of childhood lead exposure to psychopathology in the US population over the past 75 years,” Michael J. McFarland, Aaron Reuben, Matt E. Hauer. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, December 4, 2024.

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This peer-reviewed publication was selected for publication by the editors of Disabled World due to its important relevance to the disability community. Originally written by Duke Universityand published on 12/5/2024, content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity. For more details or clarifications, Duke University He can be contacted at duke.edu. NOTE: Disabled World does not provide any warranty or endorsement related to this item.

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Cite this page (APA): Duke University. (2024, December 5). Lead exposure erodes American mental well-being. Disabled world. Retrieved December 7, 2024 from www.disabled-world.com/health/neurology/lead-mental.php

Permanent link: Lead Exposure Erodes Americans’ Mental Well-Being: A study reveals that exposure to leaded gasoline exhaust has caused an estimated 151 million cases of psychiatric disorders in the United States in 75 years.

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