Lead poisoning costs the US billions of dollars and millions of IQ points yearly

Evidence

Because we have ignored this precept, lead poisoning has cost our country a staggering $50 billion. But it also has cost our nation something far more precious: 23 million lost IQ points every year.10 And this frightful cost is the subject of this book, which discusses a specific, devastating, and all but unregarded injury that environmental poisoning inflicts on communities of color—the loss of intelligence and the malignant flowering of behavioral problems that destroy lives and human potential as effectively as cancer and lung disease but with far fewer alarms raised. — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 37

Categorization

• corroborated: 421 independent passages support this claim — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 37
• XREF: connects to: A small average IQ drop hugely swells rates of disability and shrinks giftedness — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 427; Industry chose profitable lead additives over safe unpatentable alternatives — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 257; Commercial baby food commonly contains lead exceeding federal limits — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 675 (+8 more)

Related

• Previous studies reported economic losses of $165-319 billion in lost wages from lead exposure #corroborates (0.80) — Half of US population exposed to adverse lead levels in early childhood

Library Connections

• Flint’s lead-contaminated water caused hundreds of excess fetal deaths and miscarriages #exemplifies (0.90) — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 741
• Commercial baby food commonly contains lead exceeding federal limits #exemplifies (0.85) — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 675