Posted on 03/08/2022 5:31:41 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of about half the population of the United States, a new study estimates.
The peer-reviewed study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on people born before 1996 — the year the U.S. banned gas containing lead.
Overall, the researchers from Florida State University and Duke University found, childhood lead exposure cost America an estimated 824 million points, or 2.6 points per person on average.
Certain cohorts were more affected than others. For people born in the 1960s and the 1970s, when leaded gas consumption was skyrocketing, the IQ loss was estimated to be up to 6 points and for some, more than 7 points. Exposure to it came primarily from inhaling auto exhaust.
The team behind the study used gas consumption data, population estimates and other data to calculate that as of 2015, more than 170 million Americans had had blood lead levels above 5 micrograms per deciliter in their early childhood years.
Lead is a neurotoxin, and no amount of it is safe. Currently, 3.5 micrograms per deciliter is the reference value for blood lead levels to be considered high; the acceptable amount was once higher.
Principal study author Michael McFarland, an associate professor of sociology at Florida State University and a faculty member of the university’s Center for Demography and Population Health, called the number of people affected by lead exposure “staggering.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
We refer to that half as Democrats.
Yes, you’re right. It couldn’t be that./s
The standard deviation of an IQ test is 15 - 16 points across all test takers. That goes up only 1 or 2 points depending on social economc status.
If you double the test length or give up triple test over days, it only goes to 13-15. This is true of student evaluations in the general case.
Exposure to leaded gasoline was dependant on social economic status, gender or profession. Gross Economic status increased remarkably over the time period that Leaded Gas was phased out. Any number created is within alot of other unknows.
Could be true, had been mostly addressed, and other human brain development factors have widely eclipsed the effects of lead in gasoline and in paint chips and dust.
Wow! THAT’S a new angle. LOL
I’m sure this is the start of a gift to the RAT American Bar association to go after oil companies.
That and LSD explains the appeal of Jane Fonda, SDS, Weathermen, John Lindsay, The Archies, Jimmy Carter, Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, Walter Cronkite, Zabriskie Point, Henry Kissinger, the Brady Bunch and AMC.
You can still buy it as AV gas,
I like the aroma of leaded gas...
Years back I was researching online reports of lead found in soils in high traffic, urbanized locations.
IIRC, there was an old elementary school site in DC where the playground soil contained 50 times the acceptable limit in PPM of lead.
IQ decline is because high IQ parents are having fewer babies and lower IQ parents having more. Immigration of low IQ parents is a factor as well.
Study conducted by someone born before 1996.
Brain Wave, by Poul Anderson.
Here I blame my mother for painting my chew toys with old lead based house paint.
So that is why there are so many Democrats!!!
BS...........................
Liberalism dropped the nation’s IQ 30 points.
Biden’s mom must have been a truck driver, cuz he was born stupid
More junk science from the sociologists. Based on models, not data. and, 2.6 IQ points is a meaningless statistic.
Sounds like THE BLACK CLOUD by Fred Hoyle. Read it way back in 1963. Still remember it well!
What a joke!
One reason is public education. Another is immigration of people who don’t speak the language or know the culture. Another is government policy of rewarding the stupid and indolent and punishing the sharp and hard working.
It’s not the arrow, it’s the Indian.
I worked in a gas station in the 60s.
Who do I sue, LOL?
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