Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

today.duke.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 508 posts

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#81

Post by RobertRoberts »

pathartl wrote: post #58
nynx wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sugar is at least a substance that one can choose not to eat. Lead poisoning and pollution aren’t choices.

Sugar isn't really optional these days. It's snuck into so much of our processed food it's sickening.

I have a simple rule: If it has processed sugar in the ingredient list _anywhere_ I don't buy it.

If everyone did this, less processed sugar would be in our food supply. (corn syrups especially but also weird stuff like stevia, sneaky stuff like maltodextrin, etc..)

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#82

Post by catchclose8919 »

ajuc wrote: post #22
SimplyUnknown wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that people have been reckless with population safety in past, but your comment seems to imply that the Millenial generation are somehow flawless with regards with this subject. While safety is now more stringent than in the past, I very much doubt that this is the case.

Compared to ignoring global warming - ignoring lead exposure is a minor negligence.

...are you sure about that?

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#83

Post by alex_sf »

abcc8 wrote: post #74
legitster wrote: post #61

I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana. We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health. And anecdotally, this seems very apparent in my peer group. And Americans are using copious amounts of the stuff right now, and younger than ever before. I…

It might make more sense to first have a similar reckoning with alcohol. It is a far more dangerous intoxicant and exacts a large toll on individuals and society.

We can do both.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#84

Post by DFHippie »

gordian-mind wrote: post #43
ch4s3 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rate of violent crime nearly quadrupled between 1960 and its peak in 1991 in the US. Even with the COIVD bump, rates are comparable to the mid 60s, and aren't tracking the previous climb.

What's the big change that happened in the 60s and started this trend?

Is this a rhetorical question? Leaded gasoline.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#86

Post by adamsmith143 »

javert wrote: post #77
lotsofpulp wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The societal risks are the same with additional worse effects for non participants with alcohol and they have been known for a long time. If society is OK with those risks, then I cannot see cannabis being an unacceptable risk in 50 years. Can throw in refined sugar too.

> The societal risks are the same and additional worse ones with alcohol I don't think this is correct, personally. (I'm pretty sure you'll find studies arguing for both sides, so we can only go on personal wisdom.)

It's not even comparable. You an ignore the fact that far more people use Alcohol regularly, that it has countless other deleterious health affects and just look at pure death rates directly attributable to Alcohol. It's just not even in the same universe.

>(I'm pretty sure you'll find studies arguing for both sides, so we can only go on personal wisdom.)

This is blatantly false. Find me 1 study that shows definitively that MJ is worse than Alcohol for society.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#87

Post by JaimeThompson »

legitster wrote: post #61

I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana. We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health. And anecdotally, this seems very apparent in my peer group. And Americans are using copious amounts of the stuff right now, and younger than ever before. I…

Perhaps if the typical American was paid better and had more hope for the future then less would use such things to escape from reality.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#88

Post by watwut »

mschuster91 wrote: post #9
Buttons840 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but the events that proceeded the boomers weren't always empathetic. [Rephrased] Was leaded gasoline being used in WW2? I presume so?

> Were Nazi's eating lead for breakfast or something? German here. The root cause for Nazism was not just a widespread acceptance of antisemitism, but especially the economic hardships following WW1 that gave rise to populism. A poor and desperate population is always liable to fall for a skilled demagogue.

And loss in WWI which was considered unfair along with wish to report it and win this time again. Stab in the back myth, the militarization of all government services and so on and so forth.

The antisemitism was not unique to Germany. It was all around the Europe for centuries.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#89

Post by Tenoke »

legitster wrote: post #61

I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana. We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health. And anecdotally, this seems very apparent in my peer group. And Americans are using copious amounts of the stuff right now, and younger than ever before. I…

>We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health.

I can maybe believe it but I am yet to see a convincing Meta-Analysis or at least a large RCT. In general, people seem to recover from a lot of drug usage if they stop for long enough and weed isn't one of the heavy ones. Can you share what studies you are referring to?

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#90

Post by wutbrodo »

alex_sf wrote: post #83
abcc8 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might make more sense to first have a similar reckoning with alcohol. It is a far more dangerous intoxicant and exacts a large toll on individuals and society.

We can do both.

Can we? Everything I understand about the public tells me otherwise.
Post reply on HN