Adults who grew up exposed to lead are more neurotic and less mature

There's a popular meme that associates the stereotypical "boomer" personality with the lead exposure that was common during that generation's childhood — and a new study's results indicate there may be something to that idea. According to researchers, people who were exposed to higher levels of lead during their childhood are at greater risk of being neurotic, disagreeable adults who are less mature than peers who weren't exposed to the harmful substance.

Lead is a heavy metal that, at one point in time, was commonly found in everything from mallets to the paint used to color children's wooden blocks and bed frames. When it became clear that lead is an incredibly poisonous substance that negatively impacts every part of the body — including the brain — sweeping regulations were put in place to phase out the heavy metal.

Sadly, many people spent their childhoods exposed to the substance — exposure happened in many ways, including from breathing in dust from leaded paint to leaded gasoline fumes, water tainted with lead, and from chewing on wood toys painted with leaded paint as a toddler. In the worst cases, lead exposure can lead to lead poisoning. Symptoms of exposure are vast and can include behavioral problems.

According to a new study from the University of Texas at Austin, this same childhood lead exposure has been linked to personality problems in adults, including less agreeableness, more neuroticism, and lower maturity. The findings were based on more than 1.5 million people across 37 European countries and 269 US counties.

The university's Ted Schwaba explained:

Links between lead exposure and personality traits are quite impactful because we take our personalities with us everywhere. Even a small negative effect of lead on personality traits, when you aggregate it across millions of people and all the daily decisions and behaviors that our personality influences, can have really massive effects on well-being, productivity and longevity.