The Longer Reach of Lead: Early Childhood Lead Exposure and Cognitive Ability Later-in-Life

• In Event: Effects of Childhood Pollution Exposure on Development and Achievement

Abstract

Provisions of the Clean Air Act targeted the anti-knock lead additive tetraethyl-lead in automotive gasoline, specifying a phase-out schedule commencing in 1975. Because emissions from automobile gasoline were the predominant source of lead exposure in children, the phase-out caused a precipitous drop in measured child blood lead levels. Exigencies pertaining to petroleum and automobile industries caused meaningful variation in lead emissions across states between 1975 and 1990. Exploiting this temporal and spatial variation in the phase out leaded gasoline, we estimate the deleterious effects of early childhood lead exposure on standardized test performance later-in-life. Using a nationally representative sample of geo-referenced individuals born during a period of retreat in lead emissions, we find consistent evidence of later-in-life impairment on standardized tests from early childhood lead exposure. Our results suggest that the deleterious cognitive effects of early childhood exposure worsen with age and amplify with household poverty, implicating economic cost estimates of lead exposure.

Author

• Sayorn Chin, Lafayette College
  Presenting Author