If you lived through the era of leaded gasoline, you’re at a much higher risk of dying from motor neurone disease decades later.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
Historical Petrol Lead Emissions and Motor Neurone Disease Mortality in Australia
medRxiv · 2025.11.06.25339701
The Takeaway
By tracking historical lead emissions from petrol and shifting the data to account for disease latency, researchers found that lead levels explain nearly 60% of the variation in modern MND deaths. This provides a clear environmental link to a devastating neurodegenerative disease that has long been considered a medical mystery.
From the abstract
STRUCTURED ABSTRACTO_ST_ABSBackgroundC_ST_ABSAustralian age-standardized MND mortality increased steadily from 1959 and peaked around 2010-2012 and then declined steadily to 2022. The environmental drivers of this trend remain poorly understood. Historical exposure to leaded petrol, reflected in long-term population blood-lead levels, has been proposed as a potential contributor to contemporary MND risk due to the neurotoxicity and long latency associated with lead exposure. MethodsWe examined