Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

Re:Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of... by oh_sigh on Tuesday March 08, 2022 @02:06PM (#30604620)

I'm surprised they don't control for(or even mention!) fruit juice consumption, which can end up bioaccumulating dangerous amounts of lead and other heavy metals at a surprisingly low daily intake ([0] ~4oz of juice per day). I also very rarely see anyone talking about this source of lead intake - usually it is focused on water pipes or paint chips. Do black children drink more fruit juice than non-black children? If fruit juice consumption is anything like soda consumption(which I suspect it is, but have no proof), then the answer is yes[1]:

> With whites as the reference group, the odds of consuming soda was 3.1 times higher for U.S.-born blacks (95% CI 2.6–3.7), 2.4 times higher for Puerto Ricans (95% CI 1.9–3.0), and 2.9 times higher for Mexican/Mexican-Americans (95% CI 2.0–4.1). Those living in households with income less than 200% of the federal poverty level were more likely (odds ratio [OR] = 1.7, 95% CI 1.4–2.1) to be frequent soda consumers than those in households earning 600% or more of the poverty level.

[0] https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/arsenic-and-lead...

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2329746

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Re:Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of... by jounker on Tuesday March 08, 2022 @10:26PM (#30610563)

Based on my experience growing up poor, fruit juice was always more expensive than soda. If you’re living in shitty housing you’re probably not drinking much juice.

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Re:Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of... by oh_sigh on Tuesday March 08, 2022 @11:05PM (#30610806)

The question isn't choosing between fruit juice or soda, it is rather whether parents might be more likely to give their kids fruit juice to placate them, or because they mistakenly think "fruit = healthy".

Cursory research shows that might be the case(regarding lower income consuming more fruit juice):

> By contrast, the highest 100% juice consumption was found among children, racial/ethnic minorities and lower-income groups.

https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2...

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Re:Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of... by autoexec on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @02:09AM (#30611726)

> parents might be more likely to give their kids fruit juice to placate them, or because they mistakenly think "fruit = healthy".

I wouldn't be surprised if people who have difficultly affording/accessing fruit would think juice was "at least some form of fruit". The packaging often seems to be designed explicitly to mislead us into thinking that way.

The shelf life of juice is easily in its favor too. Normally, I have easy access to fresh produce and in our house it's about even odds that fruit will go bad before it's eaten and I don't have the stresses and struggles of a low income household with children that could make that even worse. If I were on a very tight budget it might be hard to justify the expense on something you're likely to throw away.

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