Study reveals link between Americans and exposure to deadly toxins

Exposure to lead in the 20th century may have led to 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 help keep car engines healthy. (It was later banned from all US vehicles in 1996.)

The use of leaded gas is said to have peaked in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s.

The findings found that childhood exposure to leaded car exhaust resulted in a mental health imbalance in the U.S. that made “generations of Americans more depressed, anxious, and inattentive or hyperactive,” according to a news release from Duke.

The study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, attributes about 151 million cases of psychiatric disorders over the past 75 years to lead gas exposure in American children.

Americans born before 1966 experienced “significantly higher rates of mental health problems as a result of lead, and likely experienced changes in their personality that would have made them less successful and resilient in life,” the researchers write.

‘There is no safe level’

Lead is “neurotoxic” and can corrode brain cells and alter brain function — therefore, there are no “safe levels of exposure at any point in life,” according to Duke.

While young children are particularly vulnerable to the effects, the researchers noted that “regardless of age, our brains are not well equipped to ward off lead toxicity.”

Lead study author Aaron Reuben, PhD, based in North Carolina, wrote in a statement that humans “have not adapted to being exposed to lead at the levels we’ve been exposed to over the last century.”

He added, “We have very few effective measures for dealing with lead once it’s in the body, and many of us are exposed to levels 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than is natural.”

‘clinically concerning’

Researchers analyzed historical data on childhood blood lead levels, lead gas use and US population statistics, determining that more than 170 million Americans had “clinically worrisome levels” of lead in their blood that from 2015.

Lead exposure resulted in higher rates of mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, but also more “mild distress that would impair quality of life.”

“We saw very significant changes in mental health across generations of Americans — meaning many more people experienced psychiatric problems than they would have if we had never added lead to gasoline,” co-author Matt Hauer said in a statement.

This is likely to result in lower IQs, mental health problems and other long-term health complications, such as cardiovascular disease, the study suggests.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Reuben reiterated that mental health in America “has likely been significantly affected by Americans’ exposure to lead over the past century.”

He said, “Decreases in lead exposure are likely to be offset by improvements in mental health. Lead has played a bigger role in our mental health than previously thought.”

While the researcher said he was not surprised to find that lead caused harm, he was surprised by the “magnitude” of its effect.

“We assume that our ‘core problem’ was solved in the 1970s and 1980s, but that was only the beginning of solving the problem,” he said.

“There are millions of Americans alive today who had extremely high lead exposure as children. How have these exposures affected the trajectories of their lives? That’s one thing we’ve set out to answer.”

Reuben noted several limitations of the study, including that it included only two groups and that it did not study exposures from sources other than gasoline.

“Over time, we hope that more lead mental health studies will become available to us to refine our estimates based on better lead injury curves,” he said.

“Future studies should ideally be able to include lead exposure from water and paints.”

The expert urged the public to take lead exposure seriously by eliminating the dangers that still exist in some paints, fuel, batteries and other media.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a regulation in October. 2024 gives cities 10 years to replace any remaining lead plumbing.

The agency also took action in January. 2024 to reduce soil lead levels in residential homes across the country.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, California child psychologist Dr. Michele Borba noted that America’s current youth mental health crisis has been largely attributed to social media, but this new study on lead exposure explores a “new realm” of what may be behind deteriorating mental health .

“It’s an unusual and fascinating reason that most of us have never been prepared for or even considered – but it’s not just the mental health and well-being of children at risk,” she said.

“It’s an unusual and fascinating reason that most of us have never been prepared for or even considered – but it’s not just the mental health and well-being of children at risk,” she said.