UAB expert weighs in on study suggesting link between leaded gasoline and mental health issues [Video]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – The impacts of exposure to leaded gasoline and the effectiveness of the public health policy to phase out Tetraethyl lead (TEL) are examined in a new study that suggests its widespread use might have contributed to millions of mental health disorders.

“The overall takeaway is that those individuals that were born during the late 60s, 70s, 80s when, you know, sort of peak use of leaded gasoline was occurring in the U.S., and then we went through a series of steps to ban it or eliminate it… that those individuals were probably at the, according to their study, at the highest risk for various mental health problems,” explained Dr. Jeffrey Wickliffe, Professor and Chair, Environmental Health Services, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

The study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, uses historical data to estimate blood-lead level (BLL) rates prior to 1976, when this …