Pollution - The Cause of Social Problems

I have a theory that pollution is the leading cause of a lot of emotional problems and physcial problems in todays society. The most obvious cause in the past was lead based fossil fuel consumption.

Risk Assessment
Lead is dangerous only if it is ingested, either by drinking lead-contaminated water, inhaling vaporized lead, or by eating lead-containing dust or, rarely, paint chips.
# Chronic exposure to lead in humans can affect the blood. Anemia has been reported in adults at blood lead levels of 50 to 80 µg/dL, and in children at blood lead levels of 40 to 70 µg/dL. (1,2)
# Lead also affects the nervous system. Neurological symptoms have been reported in workers with blood lead levels of 40 to 60 µg/dL, and slowed nerve conduction in peripheral nerves in adults occurs at blood lead levels of 30 to 40 µg/dL. (1,2)
# Children are particularly sensitive to the neurotoxic effects of lead. There is evidence that blood lead levels of 10 to 30 µg/dL, or lower, may affect the hearing threshold and growth in children. (1,2)
# Other effects from chronic lead exposure in humans include effects on blood pressure and kidney function, and interference with vitamin D metabolism. (1,2,5)
# Animal studies have reported effects similar to those found in humans, with effects on the blood, kidneys, and nervous, immune, and cardiovascular systems noted. (1,2,5)
www.epa.gov...

So bascially, pollution has definately caused adverse affects in adults and children.

I am looking for evidence to back up my claim, if I am wrong or you have another reason why people have social problems let me know.

If anyone could provide doumented case statistics of how many people have social disorders in the US now compared to the 1900's that would be awsome.

It makes sence to me that pollution could cause this, but i think there could be a number of other reasons a poor diet of fast food not doing enough exercise people living in a more crowded area people wanting more materalistic goods and then still not being happy when they get them e.g you have to have the latest car the latest trainers or you are nothing (so the adverts on t.v would have us believe) so i think it could be a number of factors. but yes i suppose pollution could be the cause of some of these problems.

One-quarter of all Americans met the criteria for having a mental illness within the past year, and fully a quarter of those had a "serious" disorder that significantly disrupted their ability to function day to day, according to the largest and most detailed survey of the nation's mental health, published yesterday.
www.washingtonpost.com...

I would agree with you that Lead has damaging effects to humans I do not think that you can lay responsability on it alone. Chemicals, environmental contamination from other sources and the like can also have an effect.

The only other problem with comparing rates in the medical field is the criteria for diagnosis and treatment etc are vastly different. So it can be apples and oranges with the data.

You may not need to go back to the 1900's. Lead was rapidly phased out. Look for data from that time frame in the Mid 80's

A recent sample of 10 umbilical cords found over 260 industrial chemicals of which 217 are cancerous! Imagine if they start sampling every newborn for chemicals.

We are killing ourselves, being killed by corporations and its making pharmaceutical corporations filthy rich while we fall apart and pay them to keep us stable long enough to say goodbye.