Exposure to lead in the 20th century may have led to this mental health problems in Americans, a new study suggests.
Researchers from Duke University and Florida State University studied the impact of lead in gasoline, which was first added in 1923 to keep car engines healthy. (It was later banned from all US vehicles in 1996.)
People born between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s are believed to have had the highest exposure.
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The findings showed that children’s exposure to leaded car exhaust resulted in a mental health imbalance in the US, leaving “generations of Americans more depressed, anxious, inattentive or hyperactive,” according to a Duke press release.
The study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, attributes an estimated 151 million cases of psychiatric disorders to lead gas exposure over the past 75 years. American children.
“The generation with the greatest exposure to lead, Generation X (1965-1980), would have experienced the greatest mental health losses,” the researchers said. (iStock)
Americans born before 1966 experienced “significantly higher rates of mental health problems due to lead, and likely experienced changes in their personality that would have made them less successful and resilient in life,” the researchers wrote.
‘Not a safe level’
Lead is “neurotoxic” and can erode brain cells and alter brain function. Therefore, there is “no safe level of exposure at any time in life,” Duke said.
Although young children are particularly vulnerable to the effects, the researchers noted, “Our brains, regardless of age, are ill-equipped to keep lead toxicity at bay.”
“Lead has played a bigger role in our mental health than previously thought.”
Lead study author Aaron Reuben, PhD, wrote in a statement that humans are “not adapted to being exposed to lead at the levels we have been exposed to over the past century.”
“We have very few effective measures to deal with lead once it is in the body, and many of us are exposed to levels 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than what is natural,” he added.
Researchers say anyone born before 1966 “had worryingly high lead exposure as children.” (iStock)
‘Clinically concerning’
The researchers analyzed historical data on blood lead levels in children, lead gas use, and U.S. population statistics, and found that more than 170 million Americans as of 2015 had “clinically concerning levels” of lead in their blood.
Lead exposure resulted in a greater number of mental health disorders, such as depression and anxietybut also more ‘mild anxiety that would affect the quality of life’.
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“We saw very significant shifts in mental health across generations of Americans – meaning many more people experienced psychiatric problems than would have been the case if we had never added lead to gasoline,” co-author Matt Hauer said in a statement.
This likely resulted in lower IQs, mental health issues, and other problems in the long term health complicationssuch as cardiovascular disease, the study suggests.
Exposure to lead can harm brain development and health, especially in children, experts say. (iStock)
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Reuben reiterated how mental health in America was “likely significantly impacted by Americans’ exposure to lead over the past century.”
“Decreasing lead exposure was likely offset by improvements in mental health,” he said. “Lead has played a bigger role in our mental health than previously thought.”
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Although the researcher said he wasn’t surprised to find that lead caused damage, he was surprised by the “magnitude” of its effect.
“We assume that our ‘main problem’ was solved in the 1970s and 1980s, but that was just the beginning of solving the problem,” he said.
“Lead has played a bigger role in our mental health than previously thought,” one researcher told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“There are millions of Americans alive today who had extremely high exposure to lead as children. How did those exposures influence the trajectories of their lives? This is one thing we wanted to answer.”
Reuben pointed out some limitations of the study, including that it included only two cohorts and did not examine exposure to sources other than gasoline.
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“As time goes on, we hope that more mental health studies become available so we can improve our estimates based on better lead-harm curves,” he said. “Future studies should ideally be able to absorb lead exposure from water and paint.”
“We are beginning to understand that past lead exposure – even decades ago – can affect our health today,” one researcher wrote in a statement. (Getty Images)
The expert urged the public to take lead exposure seriously by removing the hazards that still exist in some paints, fuel, batteries and other media.
“There are millions of Americans alive today who had extremely high exposure to lead as children.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a regulation in October 2024 that gives cities 10 years to replace any remaining lead pipes.
The agency also took action in January 2024 to reduce lead levels in the soil of residential homes across the country.
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In an interview with Fox News Digital, child psychologist Dr. Michele Borba notes that America’s current youth mental health crisis is largely blamed on social media, but this new lead exposure study explores a “new domain” of what could be happening. behind deteriorating mental health.
Experts may be ‘overlooking’ the long-lasting effects of lead exposure on the mental health of today’s adults, an expert has said. (iStock)
“It’s an unusual and fascinating reason that most of us have never been prepared for or even thought about – but it’s not just mental health of children and well-being are at stake,” she said.
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“We may be overlooking other generations and the long-term impact of lead exposure.”
Borba noted that while more research is needed on this topic, she recommends that other mental health professionals consider lead exposure when treating patients.
