I’ve been chasing a persistent environmental effect similar to lead which started spiking rates of everything in western countries starting in the late 90’s in “western” countries. I’d been following plastic micro-particulates at small enough size could screw with how proteins are encoded by blocking transcription sites as a possible idea but the data is too inconsistent, way more than I’d expect to see if it was a primary causal effect.
My thinking now is that metal toxicity never went away, we just reduced lead. We had a gap between the roll back of lead paint and additives and the increased use of aluminum and other metals which have a known neurodevelopmental toxicity risk. This follows the curve in nearly all developed countries evenly. I’m wondering if we can tie Al use in a country (maybe recycling measurements?) to neurodevelopmental conditions?
We barely even test/tested for lead, now we have a whole other pervasively used substance that might be just as bad/worse? Can you imagine the shit fits over people having to give up their beer cans?