Two years ago, I made a video about lead and crime, reviewing the research that suggests lead may very well have been the cause of a spike in crime in the 1990s. I also touched on the common refrain that high levels of lead are the reason why Boomers seem so gullible and bigoted, and why so many of them believe whatever is on Fox News and voted for Donald Trump. While lead may be related, I pointed out that if that’s the case, we should all be more worried about what’s going to happen with Gen X, because THAT is the generation with the most exposure to lead throughout their lifetimes.
Well, wouldn’t you know it: in the 2024 election, Boomers actually were less likely to vote for Trump compared to previous elections, while Gen X (particularly men) became way, way Trumpier. Gen X is considered to be anyone born between 1965 and 1980, so 45 to 60 years old. According to Pew Research, voters between 30 and 49 moved from +11 points in favor of Democrats in 2016 to a measly plus 2, and those who were 50 to 64 moved from 6 points in favor of Trump in 2016 to 14 points for Trump. Boomers went from 9 points for Trump down to 3.
And, wouldn’t you know it, but research published this past December confirmed what I said previously: Gen X is, in fact, the leadiest generation, and we are all super fucked because of it.
In “Contribution of childhood lead exposure to psychopathology in the US population over the past 75 years,” published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, researchers used data from lead surveillance surveys and leaded gasoline usage to estimate the levels of lead in the blood of children since the 1950s. Then they compared that data to surveys on mental health, considering overall mental health plus anxiety, depression, ADD/ADHD, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. They found that the kids with the highest exposure and the most pronounced lead-associated mental health and personality differences were born between 1966 and 1986, which is mostly what we consider Gen X, with a bit of overlap with Millennials.
We apparently have “a greater risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, greater risk for psychosis and thought disorders, greater risk for externalizing conditions like antisocial behavior, and internalizing conditions like anxiety, depression,” one study co-author told UVA Today. He went on to hypothesize that we’re going to see an uptick in cases of dementia thanks to that early exposure, and suggests that if we’re worried about our brain health due to this massive damage that happened to us as children, then we should “try to do things to lower your risk of dementia – things like maintaining a healthy diet, avoiding excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption, gaining an adequate amount of sleep – you know, things that will reliably maintain brain health as we age.”
Which is great advice and probably pretty easy to do if you aren’t a person who was exposed to a metric fuck ton of poison as a child which led to you developing anxiety and depression that make it extremely difficult to maintain a healthy diet, avoid excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption, and get an adequate amount of sleep. But hey thanks anyway.
So yeah, the bad news is that you can’t just wait for the boomers to die to be rid of angry old bigots. You’re going to have to wait a few more decades for Gen X to get out of the way, at which point I’m sure everything will be fine and future generations will be well-adjusted and will NOT vote for fascists.
Now to take a big sip of water and read the latest edition of ACS Central Science, the journal from the American Chemical Society:
A toxicologist at UC Davis got his hands on a disposable e-cigarette, the kind that’s popular amongst teens and young adults with broccoli haircuts. He decided to test it for various metal contamination, and found such a high concentration of lead that his first reaction was to assume his equipment was malfunctioning.
So he got a bunch more e-cigs and vape pods, and tested them as if someone was puffing on them hundreds of times. He found that they released all kinds of dangerous metals in addition to lead, and that they released more and more of them the longer each vape was used. Not only did he find that these disposable e-cigs released more dangerous metals than earlier refillable vape pens, but some of them actually released more dangerous metals than actual cigarettes.
They found that in total, three of the seven tested devices “had nickel levels and two devices had antimony levels that exceeded cancer risk limits. Vapors from four of the devices had nickel and lead emissions that surpassed health-risk thresholds for illnesses besides cancer, such as neurological damage and respiratory diseases.”
Not only are these metals and metalloids being leached from the devices components into the vapor, but the researchers found that some of them were already present in the actual liquid before it was even heated.
So yeah, we took the lead out of the gas but the kids continue to yearn for it, forced to find and consume it via bubblegum flavored slurp juice. I have to admit, that does sound more fun than the way I ended up with anxiety and depression, which was sitting in a car with the windows down mainlining leaded gas so often that I get nostalgic for the smell. But please, younger generation, you actually get to choose to at least stop one avenue of lead poisoning. Stop using vapes. Go back to the old ways. The good ways. The tried and true and, objectively, much cooler way to inhale something that’s only a little bad for you.
JUST KIDDING DON’T DO DRUGS please don’t demonetize this video, YouTube!
