Lead is
a well known neurotoxin. It’s also a common pollutant. New research estimates the toll that those two truths, combined, have had on Americans’ mental health. Between 1940 and 2015, childhood lead exposure (specifically from the use of leaded gasoline) resulted in about 151 million additional instances of psychiatric illness that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred, according to the
study published December 4 in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
The authors came to that conclusion by applying findings from previously published work to a model of the entire U.S.