Lead from gasoline blunted the IQ of about half the U.S. population

[I am He]

My understanding is that lead is absorbed by your body most often due to a lack of iron. Poor diet+lead exposure=lead poisoning.

 

[Buckeye]

I read an article that said elevated levels of lead contributed to impulsivity that contributed to crime and that as the exposure level to lead dropped, the crime rate has dropped. Apparently, the most effected people lived in urban areas where the proximity to city streets and constant traffic exposed children to the lead day after day. My grandson had elevated lead levels when he was young due to living in a lead paint home. He was enrolled in a study 20 years ago to track his health and his lead levels. Don't know when that ended.

 

[teachme]

Well, I am thinking I am in trouble since I have pumped a lot of avgas (still a leaded fuel) over my lifetime.

If you did it in the military you're exempt from any side effects

 

[Time2]

I spent my first 20 years within 2 blocks of a 4 lane highway.
I coulda been a genius!

 

[mcbraemer]

The title of this thread may be true. However,
1) SAT and ACT college exam scores have fallen precipitously for decades since about 1980, and 2) High School achievement scores and graduation rates have done the same. Fog a mirror and you're off to college!
Seems the IQ (if measured by these educational standards) problems of 50's and 60's kids pale in comparison with more recent generations. There could be other factors at play aside from environmental, as poor as it was back in the day.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

If you did it in the military you're exempt from any side effects

I know. Never mind the time I was soaked from head to toe with JP-4 (kerosene and gasoline blend) when a valve failed. There was no wash station around, so I got to drive my car back to the dorms (barracks for my Army friends) and shower. My car stunk for months and my skin was cherry-red for about a week.

Oh, and the month when I worked at the airplane wash rack and was constantly soaked in degreaser. In spite of using all the safety gear I could find, somehow I was at the eye wash station at least twice a week.

And my first assignment was next door to an EPA superfund site where they incinerated left over agent orange for 24 hours a day for 18 months straight. Another assignment had me next door to a DuPont plant where the per capita cancer rate was/is one of the highest in the country.

So, if I make it to 70 years old, I will be very surpirsed...

 

[Music Lover]

The title of this thread may be true. However,
1) SAT and ACT college exam scores have fallen precipitously for decades since about 1980, and 2) High School achievement scores and graduation rates have done the same. Fog a mirror and you're off to college!
Seems the IQ (if measured by these educational standards) problems of 50's and 60's kids pale in comparison with more recent generations. There could be other factors at play aside from environmental, as poor as it was back in the day.

A good environment can't overcome the decline of the education system.

 

[38Chevy454]

A good environment can't overcome the decline of the education system.

I agree, that is where the problem is.

 

[2HOTinPHX]

Yes i wonder about all this exposure to stuff like this including second hand smoke from parents. Working in a dusty woodshop for many years...I think its gonna bite me in the *** someday.

As far IQ and loss off due to exposure...still pretty amazing what the much smarter than me group have been able to accomplish...hopefully we will get to see all James Web Telescope has to offer soon.

 

[RetMD21]

The title of this thread may be true. However,
1) SAT and ACT college exam scores have fallen precipitously for decades since about 1980, and 2) High School achievement scores and graduation rates have done the same. Fog a mirror and you're off to college!
Seems the IQ (if measured by these educational standards) problems of 50's and 60's kids pale in comparison with more recent generations. There could be other factors at play aside from environmental, as poor as it was back in the day.

There is no doubt that even low level lead exposure is neurotoxic https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046839/

 

[Mulligan]

When I was a teenager, I used to love the smell of gasoline. When dad stopped for gas, I would ask him if I could man the gas pump to whiff the gasoline fumes. I qualified as a Moderator here many years later so the TEL exposure was not that bad? I still can remember how to spell my name, too.

I know…So I had to taste it as a kid, too.. That removed my desire to smell it anymore, ha. Also, I used play in asbestos sprayed barn gymnasiums digging at it. Playing with mercury with no gloves throughout high school (most fascinating, as Spock would say). And of course getting lead paint stuck under my finger nails several times. Glad I am not translucent to see all the crap gone wrong inside me!

 

[ERD50]

I know…So I had to taste it as a kid, too.. That removed my desire to smell it anymore, ha. Also, I used play in asbestos sprayed barn gymnasiums digging at it. Playing with mercury with no gloves throughout high school (most fascinating, as Spock would say). And of course getting lead paint stuck under my finger nails several times. Glad I am not translucent to see all the crap gone wrong inside me!

That's actually not so bad. The skin doesn't really absorb so much. The danger in the CFLs was that it was an airborne dust that entered and stayed in the lungs.

-ERD50

 

[misanman]

Use to sit in the back of chemistry class and play with the mercury that was stored in the lab tables.

It's a different world today - somebody broke a mercury thermometer at the school and they had a full-blown hazmat incident, including evacuation.

 

[jim584672]

Mercury is so safe we use it in the kids tooth fillings. LOL

Office work in the 80s, a layer of smoke would cover the whole office, before they banned indoor smoking.

 

[Turbo29]

Use to sit in the back of chemistry class and play with the mercury that was stored in the lab tables.

It's a different world today - somebody broke a mercury thermometer at the school and they had a full-blown hazmat incident, including evacuation.

We had a mercury manometer on the wall of our chemistry classroom in high school. Someone hit it with a cart and busted it spilling mercury all over the floor. It was cleaned up and the classroom was put back into use. Nowadays, the classroom would be sealed in a negative pressure wrap for months while the spill was remediated.

One day we did an experiment where we mixed two chemicals producing a bright yellow lead iodide precipitate. We all got it on our hands (no gloves or other protection used). Even though lunch period was after the class, no one was advised to wash their hands well.

 

[Mulligan]

Use to sit in the back of chemistry class and play with the mercury that was stored in the lab tables.

It's a different world today - somebody broke a mercury thermometer at the school and they had a full-blown hazmat incident, including evacuation.

Ha, that brings back a good memory. Probably 15-20 years or so that happened at my school. A teacher and good friend called to tell me about a thermometer breaking in the classroom. I asked him why are you telling me, you know where the custodian closet is at…. That is when I became instantly educated on hazardous materials, finding a new temporary class room, proper cleaning procedures and of course paperwork. I guess it was a good thing he knew the procedures as I am more of a ‘70s product.

 

[Koolau]

This brings back a flood of memories of all the stuff we were exposed to as kids - most of which have been ameliorated now.

Asbestos - our "new" school ca 1958 deposited a fresh layer of asbestos ceiling
material on our desks every night as we slept. Dad used a lot of Transite
so I always helped him use the power saw to cut it. Fortunately, I wasn't a
smoker but...
Second hand smoke - both parents smoked and our house was steam heated
so it had no ventilation in winter and then in summer when we finally got
air conditioning so, I'm sure we were over exposed to....
Radon was ubiquitous in many parts of the midwest. Our house was built on an
open dirt basement.
Nuclear fall out from all the A-tests in the 50s. Biggies were Strontium 90 and
I131. See Effects to the Human Body From Nuclear Fallout
Phthalates which were ubiquitous (and still are) in styro cups and plastics of
all kinds.
Coal fired electrical generation plant products such as sulfur dioxide, fly ash
mercury, uranium, etc.
Oh, and lead from gasoline, paint, pipes, etc.

It's a wonder any of us has an IQ above 90 and haven't already passed from cancer - but YMMV

 

[homestead]

Our daughter informed us this week the "Old Town Blue” Pattern Corelle plates we have been using since 70's have dangerous lead in the pattern.

 

[Sunset]

Chicago has lots of lead pipes in the water system. They have 50 years to replace them under State law


https://news.wttw.com/2021/03/24/chicago-has-more-lead-service-pipes-any-other-us-city-illinois-most-any-state

"Illinois has more lead service pipes than any other state and Chicago more than any other city. Why do we have so many lead service pipes compared to other states and cities?

The biggest reason is that essentially Chicago and other cities around Illinois required the use of lead service lines all the way until 1986, long after it was recognized that lead was poisonous and other cities had stopped using it. A decade after other cities had stopped using it Chicago and other cities in Illinois were not only using it but requiring the use of lead long after everybody else."

 

[JoeWras]

Chicago has lots of lead pipes in the water system. They have 50 years to replace them under State law

https://news.wttw.com/2021/03/24/ch...pes-any-other-us-city-illinois-most-any-state

Given that the dangers were well known by that point why did the city continue to use it?
I think there were a few different reasons. One, it was economically feasible, it was cheaper and easier to use and to keep using it. And another part of that was that the lead industry historically had a strong lobby.

Let's also add the main reason that the reporter is reluctant to give: lobbying from the trade unions.

Chicago has extremely strong and powerful unions and they have been instrumental in retaining law that uses more traditional construction methods to put up barriers of entry to inexperienced (non-union) people. Anyone who deals with construction knows of all the Chicago exceptions to code. Examples include: wires running through conduit (no Romex), slow adoption of plastic water and drain supply pipe, and so on.

This is very slowly changing over time. It was too slow for the lead pipe situation.

My dad was a union plumber in Chicago his entire life. In his final years of w*rk, he was one of the old guys who could still sweat a joint on a lead-to-lead connection. This is literally an impossible DYI job.

The rules probably cost him his hips, knees and back. He worked with so much cast iron drain pipe it wasn't even funny. He was grateful to finally start working with plastic DWV near the end (80s).

 

[misanman]

Asbestos - our "new" school ca 1958 deposited a fresh layer of asbestos ceiling

This reminds me that we had a box of asbestos "rocks" in the attic. Not sure where they came from but I use to like playing with them - I was fascinated by how you could pull individual strands off.

Also, just remembered that we had asbestos roof shingles. Tried sneaking out on the porch roof once but discovered that I left a trail of broken shingles - they were very brittle.

 

[Sunset]

Let's also add the main reason that the reporter is reluctant to give: lobbying from the trade unions.

Chicago has extremely strong and powerful unions and they have been instrumental in retaining law that uses more traditional construction methods to put up barriers of entry to inexperienced (non-union) people. Anyone who deals with construction knows of all the Chicago exceptions to code. Examples include: wires running through conduit (no Romex), slow adoption of plastic water and drain supply pipe, and so on.

This is very slowly changing over time. It was too slow for the lead pipe situation.

My dad was a union plumber in Chicago his entire life. In his final years of w*rk, he was one of the old guys who could still sweat a joint on a lead-to-lead connection. This is literally an impossible DYI job.

The rules probably cost him his hips, knees and back. He worked with so much cast iron drain pipe it wasn't even funny. He was grateful to finally start working with plastic DWV near the end (80s).

Yes, I ran into this with my water heater.

Not allowed to use the flexible gas connection even though it is allowed for stoves and dryer.

Nope had to use the black iron pipe.

Too hard for me, so I hired a plumber to hook up the water heater.


Also annoying as is less safe, one earthquake and the iron pipe will break/crack rather than flex.

 

[Sunset]

This reminds me that we had a box of asbestos "rocks" in the attic. Not sure where they came from but I use to like playing with them - I was fascinated by how you could pull individual strands off.

....

In university geology class, we passed one around to see, amazing how soft the fibers/strands were to touch.



No safety concerns at all

 

[Badger]

This study reinforces the accuracy of both my sig lines:

Lead from gasoline blunted the IQ of about half the U.S. population, study says

Too little. Too late. Lots of controversy about IQ testing anyway.
But here is a fun map that gives fodder for arguments.
https://www.zippia.com/advice/average-iq-by-state/
Cheers!

 

[ERD50]

Chicago has lots of lead pipes in the water system. They have 50 years to replace them under State law


https://news.wttw.com/2021/03/24/chicago-has-more-lead-service-pipes-any-other-us-city-illinois-most-any-state

"Illinois has more lead service pipes than any other state and Chicago more than any other city. Why do we have so many lead service pipes compared to other states and cities?

The biggest reason is that essentially Chicago and other cities around Illinois required the use of lead service lines all the way until 1986, long after it was recognized that lead was poisonous and other cities had stopped using it. A decade after other cities had stopped using it Chicago and other cities in Illinois were not only using it but requiring the use of lead long after everybody else."

I had always heard that the lead pipes in Chicago were not a big problem, because the somewhat alkaline water had enough minerals to coat the pipe, reducing the amount of lead leached into the water. The big problem in Flint MI was that they switched water sources to one that was more acidic.

I didn't come up with anything conclusive in my searches and most of the data was pretty hard to parse, but it does seem that there are lead levels that exceed standards in many areas of Chicago. But, my searching also showed that the blood levels of lead in the population are pretty low and most importantly, decreased by a large % from 1990's to 2010's. As I understand it, not much has changed in the water supply in that time, but major strides were made in getting rid of lead paint/residue.

So it seems that lead paint was a big culprit, not so much the water? But as I said, the sources I found were a bit hard to decipher.

Her'es one:

https://data.cityofchicago.org/Heal...tatistics-Screening-for-elevated-bl/v2z5-jyrq

-ERD50