Childhood Lead Exposure May Affect Personality, Mental Health in Adulthood

Back Story Previous observational studies have found an association between prenatal or childhood lead exposure and an increased risk of schizophrenia and antisocial behaviors in adulthood. But these studies were small, limited to individual psychiatric conditions, and relied on single time-point psychological assessments. As such, researchers have yet to rigorously explore how lead exposure during childhood affects lifelong mental health. To gain a more thorough understanding, investigators in the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand followed a cohort of 579 children exposed to lead from birth until age 38 years. The children, born between 1972 and 1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand, weren’t exposed to lead pipes or paint but to leaded gasoline used in cars from the 1940s through the 1990s. During the 1970s, Dunedin had some of the highest gasoline lead levels in the world. The lead was released in automobile exhaust, contaminating the air and soil. A previous JAMA study involving the same children linked higher childhood lead exposure with lower IQ scores and downward social mobility in adulthood.