Half of American adults exposed to harmful lead levels in gas as kids

ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 7, 2022

Over 170 million U.S.-born people who were adults in 2015 were exposed to harmful levels of lead as children, a new study estimates. The researchers examined lead exposure caused by leaded gasoline, the dominant form of exposure from the 1940s to the late 1980s. Leaded gasoline for on-road vehicles was phased out starting in the 1970s, then finally banned in 1996.