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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

#291

Post by stjohnswarts »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #73
xhkkffbf wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then there's been a huge rise in crime. The murder rate in some cities is dramatically higher than just a few years ago. But it's not like the gas suddenly became leaded again. This makes me think that we just can't be too certain about these things.

> But then there's been a huge rise in crime Is this actually true? I've seen a lot of people saying this politically but haven't seen a lot of data to back it up. From what I've seen there's been a slight bump, which isn't too surprising given the state of everything... but it's still massively dwarfed by the decrease in the 90s and 00s For example https://www.bbc.com/news/57581270

Here property crime was up a little bit but violent crime was way up (50% or so). I personally think it's the stress and anxiety of lost jobs, loss of release valves (going to the office, seeing friends, etc). I believe it's a temporary spike and will fade in the next year or two.

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

#292

Post by lern_too_spel »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #199
lern_too_spel wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only is it not naive, but avoiding these scenarios woth market regulation is one of the main purposes of modern government. Hence, vaccination policies and CFC regulation. Libertarians like to believe that negative externalities and other market failures don't exist, that the invisible hand is always benevolent, but examples abound for those who do not follow a religion that forbids them from noticing.

>Not only is it not naive, but avoiding these scenarios woth market regulation is one of the main purposes of modern government. Hence, vaccination policies and CFC regulation. Libertarians like to believe that negative externalities and other market failures don't exist, that the invisible hand is always benevolent, but examples abound for those who do not follow a religion that forbids them from noticing. It's stil…

Examples where most people are worse off are easy to think of. I gave an example where everybody is worse off because it is an interesting scenario. I made no claim about how often that situation occurs. There is no reason for overall progress to grind to a halt — the Nash equilibria for a game can be arbitrarily bad. There is only the obvious conclusion that governments should get involved to fix these problems when they occur, including regulating lead use, given that we see plenty of governments that have not and have suffered the consequences.

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

#294

Post by dionidium »

veltas wrote: post #6

Didn't we have a previous study debunking this research on statistical grounds?

What has never made sense to me is that the IQ effects aren't equally visible across income/class groups, but we know there are millions of wealthy people living in old housing in Boston and NYC and Providence and so on. Lead levels in those houses must be just as high, right? But those kids aren't experiencing the same IQ effects. Surely this suggests that something else is a bigger factor?

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

#295

Post by stjohnswarts »

DethNinja wrote: post #4

Perhaps past lead usage in fuels will indirectly lead to collapse of the civilisation: Lead is known to decrease empathy and increase crime. I don’t want to generalise an entire generation but boomer generation was heavily poisoned by lead and perhaps this made them more selfish and less emphatic. Maybe this is the primary cause of many current problems? I wonder if humans were supposed to be more emphatic in past be…

This is untrue. The "rome collapsed because of lead" revisionary history is bunkum.

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

#296

Post by pessimizer »

bsedlm wrote: post #17
veltas wrote: post #6

Didn't we have a previous study debunking this research on statistical grounds?

there's this thing about the modern internet era which makes it possible to find a study to debunk (or support) pretty much any idea/theory you want. specially in the midst of an information/propaganda war all I'm trying to say is that I have decided not to think in the way you just did e.g. "where's that study which supports what I already believe?". It doesn't seem like a good tactic anymore

> I have decided not to think in the way you just did e.g. "where's that study which supports what I already believe?"

I'm not sure you have if you immediately assume what veltas believes because they're asking to be reminded about another study. Seems like projection.

My personal opinion is that it's less noble to close your ears to new information once you've found the information that you prefer than it is to look for more information when you don't like the information you have.

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

#298

Post by kukx »

breakyerself wrote: post #248

Black children had an adjusted 0.73 to 1.41 µg/dL more blood Pb (p https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084658/

Is it certain that the Pb causes the lower IQ or maybe there is some other factor and poorer people happen to have higher concentration?

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

#300

Post by pessimizer »

bpodgursky wrote: post #50
jeffbee wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lead hypothesis is supported by particularly strong evidence: there is a natural threshold experiment where school children with blood lead levels over a certain amount are treated to remove lead from their home environment (and their bodies) while other children just below the same lead level were not treated. The difference in later life outcomes are stark. There is no such natural experiment for abortion. It's…

I'm not in the slightest challenging that lead is terrible for IQ; it's the link to national crime stats that I think is more tenuous.

https://jabberwocking.com/has-the-lead-crime-hypothesis-been...
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