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

today.duke.edu

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

#111

Post by jmugan »

softwarebeware wrote: post #10

It makes me angry to think of how wreckless the generations before millenials were. Lead's risks and damages were well-known long before 1996. And they still didn't ban it until then.

That comment seems to blame a large group of people for something a small group did. The problem with lead is the same problem it always was and still is, a small group of people benefit and are able to make everyone else suffer. We clearly need to fix that, probably with specific measures to limit undue influence in congress. We should focus on those specific measures instead of divisive generalizations.

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

#112

Post by catchclose8919 »

webkike wrote: post #34

IQ doesn’t measure intelligence so for all we know this just shows that IQ tests measure how little lead you’ve been exposed to

That's one hard to parse sentence there... or maybe I've been exposed to too much lead as a child :)

In all seriousness, IQ is an important component of intelligence, mainly "fluid intelligence" that correlates well to learning speed in science and technology field, so for anyone that needs to do lots of learning/unlearning and career/domain hopping like we're all going to do more and more in the future it matters a hell of a lot!

I a world where someone could pick a job/domain and stick to it for life, IQ would matter but less... but it's not the world we're living in, everything is accelerating and our kids are likely to go through quite a few career changes / professional re-conversions etc.

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

#114

Post by vlunkr »

banana_maker wrote: post #21
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.

As of 2021, out of 432 members in the house of congress, a scant 31 are millenials. In the senate, just 1. Millenials are -not- the ones responsible for disastrous policies (yet). They haven't been around long enough yet. It's mainly boomers, some gen x, and a few silents. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/02/12/boomers-sil... edit: Added "(yet)" because it's not obvious, I suppose. My point here is that the…

So what you're saying is, millenials aren't responsible for disastrous policies yet. They'll get their turn.

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

#115

Post by sonicggg »

JaimeThompson wrote: post #87
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.

Of coursr, all the wealthy and successful people absolutely do not partake in recreational drugs.

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

#116

Post by yojo »

softwarebeware wrote: post #10

It makes me angry to think of how wreckless the generations before millenials were. Lead's risks and damages were well-known long before 1996. And they still didn't ban it until then.

It didn’t even stop then. My own city (Portland) has been regularly exceeding EPA lead action levels since 1998[1].

All they need to do is treat the water to raise ph like every other city with a large lead solder install base, but they’ve been dragging their feet for literally decades while the people they serve get lead exposure.

1: https://www.opb.org/article/2021/11/30/lead-portland-oregon-...

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

#117

Post by axiosgunnar »

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…

Interesting. What about porn abuse?

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

#118

Post by slothtrop »

wutbrodo wrote: post #90
alex_sf wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can do both.

Can we? Everything I understand about the public tells me otherwise.

Interesting to see where the U.S. stands in this list - https://www.abbeycarefoundation.com/alcohol/alcoholism-by-co...

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

#119

Post by ch4s3 »

fullshark wrote: post #72
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.

So it's dropped for 30 years... I'm not disputing the claim that lead poisoning can lead to violent crime, I'm disputing the claim that the turmoil of the last few years (my guess OP means starting with Brexit/Trump) is due to lead poisoned Boomer brains being less empathetic. Arguably the world is more empathetic than ever if you study history (simple data point: entire economies were built around slavery for most o…

I'm only commenting on violent crime, not political upheaval.

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

#120

Post by BobbyJo »

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…

>I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana.

> But the risk in 50 years of people saying "we should have known better" seems really high

The problem with lead was that it was everywhere. Walls, gas, water, air. As long as society chose to use, we all had to ingest it. That's not so much the case with narcotics. I wouldn't expect anymore of a reckoning with MJ as there has been with alcohol.

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