READ 2025 Project 1: Waterborne Lead Exposure and Cognition

Individuals with higher childhood lead exposures, many years later, are more likely to have AD/ADRD listed as a primary or contributing cause of death on their death certificates. This project drills down on the causal mechanisms underlying this prior finding. Specifically, the project explores the effects of lead exposure on cognitive impairment and AD/ADRD-related outcomes as they develop across the life course. It involves constructing a dataset of lead exposure in the United States (covering around 60 percent of the US population); and then linking the lead exposure variables to AD/ADRD-related measures in other publicly available databases, such as cognitive impairment, labor market underperformance, independent living difficulty, and receipt of disability benefits.