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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 39 of 131
Millions of Mental Health Disorders in US Caused by
Lead
Miki Barnes
December 6, 2024
https://mailchi.mp/f242982197a2/millions-of-mental-health-disorders-in-us-caused-by-
lead-poisoning?e=0e273a55ef – reprinted with permission of Dr Aaron Reuben.
“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…
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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 40 of 131
“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.
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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 41 of 131
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.
Copyright © 2024 Oregon Aviation Watch, All rights reserved.
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