Lead in the pipes

[cilla4progress]

Seriously wondering what role this might play in America's dumbing down?

Just read they are repairing pipes in 40 Montana schools where lead was found.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. My guess is that at best it would be a relatively small factor.

Lead stopped being used in pipes in 1986, and at least some pipes have been replaced, although there are still many older lead pipes around.

I'm not sure how to check this out, other than to find places with lead pipes, match with otherwise similar places without lead in the pipes, and try to compare overall IQ scores.

No, the dumbing down in far more complicated than lead in the pipes. It's built from poorly financed schools, poor teaching of history and science, the propaganda of religion, and, most importantly, the RW news media. People are not taught anything resembling critical thinking, which is why so many here report a friend or relative who is really smart and has advanced degrees but nonetheless believes the nonsense about Covid, or the recent election being stolen.

[cilla4progress]

2. Thanks

for your thoughtful reply.

[NewDayOranges]

3. It's my belief that our lead-tainted water supply

Has contributed to the rise in numbers if those diagnosed with ADHD/ADD and other cognitive and learning disabilities. In other words, people/kids aren't being over-diagnosed, there just more people/kids being found suffering from the results of this environmental contamination...

Also, the symptoms of those suffering from lead poisoning include aggressive, violent and irrational behavior...

Why isn't EVERYONE in America suffering from these symptoms, one may ask?

The answer is because each individual's body has it's own tolerance...

Long story short, I agree with you - there are many Americans suffering from lead poisoning due to lead-contaminated drinking water...

[HighFired49]

4. Lead ingestion is definitely correlated

with loss of IQ, and increased violent and anti-social behavior. https://humanimpact.org/lead-poisoning-and-crime-why-the-pipeline-to-prison-is-running-dry/

This is just one example of hundreds of studies done that have found a direct correlation to lead ingestion and loss of IQ, and correlation between lead ingestion and criminal acts. Unfortunately, water pipes are just one source of lead in children's environments. There are many old houses with lead paint covering them; gasoline, until the late 1970's had lead that was released into the air especially in cities; aviation fuel still contains high amounts of lead so that people who live near airports are in danger of ingesting lead from jet exhaust; and, studies have found elevated lead levels in people living near highways because of lead weights on truck and car wheels being ground up and sent into the air from passing vehicles that run over the weights. (Who'da thunk it, right?)

Lead definitely affects IQ, and anti-social behavior, and the effects are permanent. The effects are generationaly felt from the loss of IQ in parents, and their ability to teach and provide for their children, and from the parents' anti-social behaviors.

All of that said, we are gradually getting the lead out, but it will take a long time.

[cilla4progress]

5. Reminds me

of the fall of Rome...

[Bayard]

6. Isn't this covered in the Infrastructure bill?

Replacing old lead pipes?

Maybe that's why rethuglicans don't want it. They like their sheeple dumb.