Lead, Flint, and Grandfather

Abstract

Blood lead levels of American children probably peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, thereafter declining sharply because of the mandated removal of lead from gasoline. Blood lead is associated with declining IQ, but puzzlingly, measured IQ of American children increased in the decades when lead was added to gas as well as in decades after it was removed. No level of blood lead is considered safe, but to put in perspective the alarming levels reported recently in Flint, MI, these are far lower than lead levels common in American children during the 1970s, and if there are consequent declines in IQ, they would be small. Flint, certainly not the worst lead contaminated area of the nation, was given inordinate attention by The New York Times beginning in January 2016, creating a national alarm as well as panic among Flint residents, already suffering the problems of a poor and degrading city. In early 2016, increasing news coverage “rode the waves” of the presidential primaries and the Black Lives Matter movement, then largely dropped from public attention by the summer, perhaps lessening the political pressure to relieve Flint.