STUDY: Half Of U.S. Children Exposed To Unsafe Lead Levels

NEW YORK – Attention Generation X: There’s a chance you aren’t as smart as you could be, because of lead poisoning.

A new study shows almost everyone who was born between 1961 and 1980 was exposed to dangerous levels of lead.

According to the study, about 170 million people in the U.S. had dangerous levels of lead in their blood during their early childhood years.

You didn’t have to eat paint chips to get it, the study’s authors blame leaded gasoline, which was commonly used to fuel cars in the 1960s and 70s.

They estimate affected people lost a collective 800 million IQ points, or about 2.6 points per person. If you were born between 1966 and 1975, that average jumps to seven-point-four points.

All told, about 53 percent of the total population had high level of lead in their blood as children. The study was published in the “proceedings of the national academy of sciences.”