Exposure to car exhaust fumes during childhood is responsible for a significant number of symptoms caused by mental illnesses and personality disorders.
- A new study shows that more than 150 million mental health diagnoses could be linked to lead in gasoline.
- Indeed, adults with clinically concerning levels of lead in their blood as children became depressed, anxious, and inattentive or hyperactive.
- “Our task will be to ensure that today’s children are protected from further exposure to lead, wherever it occurs,” according to the authors.
Lead is a neurotoxic element. The latter can destroy brain cells and impair cognitive functions after entering the body. Therefore, there is no safe level of exposure at any time of life, according to experts and medical professionals. Problem: this element is found in the pipes of the water networks of old towns, in the ground, in paints, welding, but also in automobile fuel. In fact, lead was added, for the first time in 1923, to gasoline in order to preserve the health of engines. Although its presence in fuel has been banned in the United States since 1996, researchers at Duke and Florida State universities are wondering whether people born before that date were exposed to very high levels of lead during their childhood. .
Generation X is most exposed to lead
To find out how the use of leaded gasoline for more than 75 years may have left a permanent mark on the brain and mental health of humans, the team conducted a study. It determined the likely burden of lead exposure for each American from 1940 to 2015 using historical data on the blood lead levels of American children. From this information, they estimated the attack of lead on mental health (anxiety, depression), neurodevelopment (ADHD) and personality by calculating the “mental illness points” gained from exposure to the gas. lead.
Consumption of leaded gasoline increased rapidly in the early 1960s and peaked in the 1970s. As a result, scientists found that virtually everyone born during those two decades had been exposed to levels harmful lead from car exhaust. The generation most exposed to lead, Generation X (1965-1980), would have experienced the greatest losses in mental health.
Depression, anxiety, personality disorders: children exposed to lead are more affected
According to the results, published in the journal Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry151 million psychiatric disorders are due to lead exposure in the United States. “We’ve seen very significant changes in mental health across generations of Americans. This means that many more people have experienced psychiatric problems than if we had never added lead to gasoline,” declared Matthew Hauerwho participated in the research.
Lead exposure led to higher rates of diagnosed mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, but also higher rates of adults experiencing milder distress that would impair their quality of life. Lead’s effect on brain health has also been linked to personality changes that manifest nationally. “We believe there is a shift in neuroticism and consciousness at the population level.”
“We are beginning to understand that lead exposures from the past, even from previous decades, can influence our health today. Our task in the future will be to better understand the role that lead has played in our nation’s health and to ensure that today’s children are protected from further exposure to lead, wherever it occurs.”concluded Aaron Reuben, author of the study.
