A study published Wednesday revealed that gasoline containing lead was the direct cause of 150 million cases of mental illness in the United States.
The study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry indicated that lead exposure had a far greater effect on the mental health of Americans than previously thought.
“Mental health in America was likely significantly influenced by Americans’ exposure to lead over the past century,” Aaron Reuben, a co-author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar in neuropsychology at Duke University and the Medical University of South Carolina, told the Washington Examiner.
The study examined blood levels of children between 1940 and 2015, and researchers found that those born between 1955 and 1986, Generation X, had the highest correlation of mental illnesses or personality disorders with high lead blood levels.
People born between 1966 and 1970 had the highest burden of mental illness, which coincided with peak leaded gasoline in the mid-1960s and mid-1970s.
Previous studies have shown that lead exposure results in lower IQ levels and neurological problems. Reuben found that over half of Americans have lowered IQ levels thanks to lead exposure. Those under the age of 6 are most prone to the detrimental effects of lead poisoning.
In 1996, regulators banned the use of leaded automobile fuel, years after lead’s negative effects became known. Lead-based paint was banned nearly 20 years earlier, in 1978. There is no safe level of exposure to lead, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Lead may still be found in old water pipes, old houses, and some toys imported from foreign countries. Reuben said lead poisoning is still a problem. Approximately 500,000 children in the United States have elevated levels of lead exposure every year.
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“Our chief exposure concern is to old leaded paint that has exfoliated inside old homes and outside into soil around homes, but there are still so many sources of lead, including in consumer foods and products,” Reuben said. “Estimates suggest one in four households in the US have soil lead hazards that warrant attention.”
While lead exposure is an ongoing problem, the study found that children born around 2015 had the lowest level of mental illness cases due to lead exposure.