In 1923, lead was first added to gasoline to help keep car engines healthy. However, automotive health came at the great expense of our own well-being.
A new study calculates that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from more than 170 million Americans alive today, about half the population of the United States.
Now obviously leaded gas influenced not just Americans, but for instance we Finns didn’t even have gas in the 40’s really, and we used a ton of wood gas generators for normal cars. We’re still pretty much #1 in the world with our air and water purity and whatnot. So I’d go so far as to argue that we weren’t as influenced by lead.
But also lead wasn’t the only thing in the US. But it definitely was an actual factor.
Not unique to America, unfortunately.
No, but American regulations and American car culture, etc is unique to America.
Lead: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Just with the Flint water crisis, >9000 kids under six were exposed to lead and several hundred had elevated blood lead levels
Which is why
https://today.duke.edu/2022/03/lead-exposure-last-century-shrunk-iq-scores-half-americans
Now obviously leaded gas influenced not just Americans, but for instance we Finns didn’t even have gas in the 40’s really, and we used a ton of wood gas generators for normal cars. We’re still pretty much #1 in the world with our air and water purity and whatnot. So I’d go so far as to argue that we weren’t as influenced by lead.
But also lead wasn’t the only thing in the US. But it definitely was an actual factor.