Petrol, pipes, paint: they made a whole generation duller. That’s if you believe the research on the effects of lead on IQ. By interfering with neurological development, the lead that we used to encounter routinely has left hundreds of millions of us with a tiny bit of brain damage.
In this episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart look at the toxic effects of lead - from very obvious, high-dose lead poisoning to the more insidious, low-level effects that have apparently held millions of people back. How strong is the evidence for the effects of low-level lead exposure on IQ?
The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine, a journal of ideas to accelerate human progress. If you’re a student aged 18-22 and want to attend the Works in Progress “Invisible College” this August (at which Stuart is speaking), take a look at this link.
Show Notes
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) page on lead poisoning
Articles on the history of lead poisoning from the BBC and the Guardian
2022 PNAS study concluding that “half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood” (the one with the “824,097,690” figure)
Article on blood lead levels and which are considered dangerous
The 2005 meta-analysis on lead and children’s IQs
Cited in the 2021 “Global Lead Exposure Report”
The critique from the CDC in 2007
The critique paper from 2013
The critique paper from 2016
The correction from 2019
The critique paper from 2020
Quasi experiments: from Rhode Island; using manufacturing employment
2018 paper on low-level lead and all-cause mortality
Credits
The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.
Episode 37: Lead and IQ