Comparing historical hair samples from people from when they were babies to today, a new study finds a nearly 100-fold decrease in lead from samples after the EPA's crackdown on leaded gas.
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@dantheclamman recommending this lead story, facinating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV3dnLzthDA@raspberryswirl @dantheclamman
Veritasium always does good stuff. -
@Sassinake the paper actually explicitly calls this out in a way I rarely see in a discussion section. very powerful and kind of chilling
The damage done by this is staggering. It will continue to effect humans for several generations. Leaded paint will also be an issue for decades to come.
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@martinvermeer @dantheclamman Truthfully, this would be very hard data to draw any conclusions from. There are just too many other factors. For instance, the shift from mostly human manufacturing to mostly robotic manufacturing (which began happening at increasing scale post WWII) the stagnation of wages are going to drive crime. Also the CIA selling arms to Iran to buy drugs from Noriega to dump on US streets to increase crime as a way to attack minorities. Too many factors. Hard to isolate.
@obscurestar @martinvermeer @dantheclamman Actually, the lead-crime correlation shows up across all industrialized societies in 20c. That the curves line up despite different countries industrializing and moving to automobiles at different times indicates that lead exposure was a major factor. It was not contained in the US, far from it.
I think the burden of proof is on those who suggest that what we know to be true about lead exposure for individuals and small groups of people somehow doesn't scale to large groups.
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@obscurestar @martinvermeer @dantheclamman Actually, the lead-crime correlation shows up across all industrialized societies in 20c. That the curves line up despite different countries industrializing and moving to automobiles at different times indicates that lead exposure was a major factor. It was not contained in the US, far from it.
I think the burden of proof is on those who suggest that what we know to be true about lead exposure for individuals and small groups of people somehow doesn't scale to large groups.
@tasket @martinvermeer @dantheclamman I don't at all doubt that lead, particularly tetraethyl lead isn't toxic and a contaminant on a massive scale (not to mention used for the stupidest pure greed reasons). Even the Romans knew that lead was bad news. Correlation across many industrialized nations can well constitute a smoking gun but correlation is not always causation. Just urging caution with blanket statements.
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@tasket @martinvermeer @dantheclamman I don't at all doubt that lead, particularly tetraethyl lead isn't toxic and a contaminant on a massive scale (not to mention used for the stupidest pure greed reasons). Even the Romans knew that lead was bad news. Correlation across many industrialized nations can well constitute a smoking gun but correlation is not always causation. Just urging caution with blanket statements.
@obscurestar @tasket @martinvermeer Yes, caution is merited. A recent meta-analysis showed there probably is an association between lead exposure and crime, but the relationship is not cut-and-dry. It explains some of the variance, but there are other contingent factors or "confounders" at play, with kids exposed to high lead and also having greater socioeconomic need showing the biggest negative effect. The review authors point out many studies do not account for that and some other interactive effects. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10393136/#sec011
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@dantheclamman How many of those leaded babies are members of congress today?
@ThePolishDispatch @dantheclamman People aren't talking about it, but the people in charge of businesses and governments around the world are exactly the age group who received the maximum doses of environmental lead. I strongly suspect that this fact is behind our worldwide political instability. I'm in this age range and I think that we need to take away grandpa's car keys.
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Comparing historical hair samples from people from when they were babies to today, a new study finds a nearly 100-fold decrease in lead from samples after the EPA's crackdown on leaded gas. Regulation works and it saves lives!
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/a-century-of-hair-samples-proves-leaded-gas-ban-worked/A big shoutout to BP's Kwinana refinery which, with the complicity of WA's corporate captured government kept producing leaded petrol way past 1996.
The government's own article below celebrates this remarkable achievement.
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Comparing historical hair samples from people from when they were babies to today, a new study finds a nearly 100-fold decrease in lead from samples after the EPA's crackdown on leaded gas. Regulation works and it saves lives!
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/a-century-of-hair-samples-proves-leaded-gas-ban-worked/@dantheclamman your Senators and President formed their brains before 1980.
This may show. -
@dantheclamman
I know I'm a broken record (or looping GIF) on this, but a large reason Pb levels aren't even lower is Avgas, the 100-octane gasoline fuel burned in virtually all reciprocating-engine aircraft, which still contains tetraethyl lead.@dantheclamman @RealGene Some special fuels for race cars also contain lead
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@dantheclamman wow, and the decline is continuing exponentially through today, looks like
@dantheclamman @petrelharp Yeah, but if you're not used to lin-log plots, it makes you think the decline is slower than it really is. Always a problem with public communication.
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Comparing historical hair samples from people from when they were babies to today, a new study finds a nearly 100-fold decrease in lead from samples after the EPA's crackdown on leaded gas. Regulation works and it saves lives!
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/a-century-of-hair-samples-proves-leaded-gas-ban-worked/That's a 20% increase in population IQ
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That's a 20% increase in population IQ
@kevinrns @dantheclamman Perhaps one factor in the Flynn Effect?
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R AodeRelay shared this topic
