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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

#201

Post by shagmin »

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…

According to [0] peak marijuana usage was in the 70s. I don't think with a smaller/more stable subset of the population partaking there's going to be many more people saying "we should have known better" than there currently are.

https://www.mlive.com/resizer/G7WZuDwdu5D2eCujzIi_RYGWYkc=/7...

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

#202

Post by ipaddr »

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 worry more about the covid vaccines

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

#203

Post by programmarchy »

Presumably there's an epigenetic effect from this i.e. having dumber parents would have negative effects on their children. But over time that should improve with the removal of lead from the environment. So we can at least take solace in that things ought to get better:

> Blood lead data were instrumental in developing policy to eliminate lead from gasoline and in food and soft drink cans. Recent survey data indicate the policy has been even more effective than originally envisioned, with a decline in elevated blood lead levels of more than 70% since the 1970s.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/about_nhanes.htm

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

#204

Post by fullshark »

ch4s3 wrote: post #119
fullshark wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah that link seems reasonably well established. The link between "current problems" (whatever they are) and a generation of lead poisoned boomer brains isn't. I'm also not exactly sure what OP is suggesting and trying to connect the dots from their offhand comment. Probably a waste of time all around so I will exit the discussion.

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

#205

Post by quercetumMons »

coding123 wrote: post #172
wutbrodo wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It does seem weird to me that about 5-10% of a grocery store is bottles of alcohol.

That depends on where you're from. Some states don't allow the private sale of liquor.

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

#206

Post by fkfkno »

_-david-_ wrote: post #154
WinterMount223 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exposure to marijuana and marijuana derivatives is optional. Exposure to lead is almost never optional.

Second hand smoke is not optional. It is the same reason we banned smoking in various buildings.

True, but this was for tobacco, and the ban was mainly to protect non-smoking workers (and more recently the patrons) in restaurants and bars who started suffering with long term health complications usually attributed to smokers. The lawsuits would have crippled the industry, so the change was largely financial in nature, such is the basis of most public health legislation.

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2013/08/01/secondhand-smoke-in-ba...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29870518/

For controls on residential buildings, we would need better standards in shared housing construction and perhaps also we could take a look at better airflow and particulate filtration methods. I expect it will be some time (and perhaps another airborne pandemic?) for that to be addressed seriously.

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

#207

Post by tombert »

BlargMcLarg wrote: post #184
tombert wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate that everything has to devolve into some kind of "this generation sucks" debate. Whether or not we can blame boomers does not matter , at least not until we have a time machine to go remedy stuff. The fact is that the decisions have been made, the damage is done, and we need to figure out what to do now , regardless of whose fault it is. It seems like so many of these conversations end at the "who is responsib…

I wouldn't complain if they were already unable to do anything, but many of them are actively preventing further improvements. Often due to it coming at a cost for them. Their unwillingness trickles down to other generations both in teachings and in pressuring the next generation what can and can't be done, and how to respond. Most of late gen X has also thrown in the towel, leaving the future generations to solve it…

Sure, but I think that it's needlessly divisive to pin it on a generation, particularly when I can find counterexamples for each.

I have no issue whatsoever with complaining about individuals who are destroying the world right now [3], I'm certainly not going to sit here and defend basically any fossil fuel executive, but I think saying it's a generational thing is needlessly reductive and doesn't buy us anything. I don't think Noam Chomsky [1] or Bernie Sanders are destroying the world [2], and I don't think millennial/gen-z bozos like Charlie Kirk are helping it.

[1] I realize he's older than a boomer, but I think my point still fits. [2] At least not advocating for stuff that's destroying the planet. I am not trying to take a directly political stand.

[3] clarification edit.

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

#208

Post by Cerium »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #38
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.

Lead still isn't banned in the US. You can go buy 100LL and burn it in your plane all day long showering it over the land below. Completely legal.

We should definitely move away from leaded gasoline and housing should not be allowed to develop near airports. Phrasing the conversation around "showering it over the land below" is to the point of fearmongering. The airplanes burning 100LL today consume gasoline at the same rate as an old pickup truck - they go about 12 miles per gallon. Lead pollution today due to aviation is a fraction of what it was in the past and is unlikely to even be the largest environmental exposure for most children.

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

#209

Post by redleader55 »

teknopaul wrote: post #200

Independent of the effect of lead on intelligence isn't it impossible to reduce the IQ of half the population because IQ is a comparative calculation across that population. Ie as intelligence goes down the definition of 100 IQ points changes? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient

The IQ should be defined for the human race, in a time independent way, not for a specific nation or group. This allows us to make comparisons between different times, between different societies, etc.

Otherwise, if the IQ is redefined to always follow the current mean, it can only be used to classify people between smarter than average and "dumber" than average, which is not so useful.

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

#210

Post by ch4s3 »

fullshark wrote: post #204
ch4s3 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yeah that link seems reasonably well established. The link between "current problems" (whatever they are) and a generation of lead poisoned boomer brains isn't. I'm also not exactly sure what OP is suggesting and trying to connect the dots from their offhand comment. Probably a waste of time all around so I will exit the discussion.

Yeah that seems tenuous. Declining institutional trust, and the botched handling to trade liberalization in the 80s and 90s coupled with the post 2008 bailouts probably has a lot more to do with current political instability in the west broadly.
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