February 2, 2026
Follicles don't lie
Banning lead in gas worked. The proof is in our hair
Your grandma’s curls just dunked on leaded gas—regulations saved lives
TLDR: A century of Utah hair shows lead exposure plummeted after EPA rules cut lead from gas and paint. Commenters celebrate the proof, argue over weakened regulations, and demand action on mercury from coal, mixing science, nostalgia, and memes to say: protecting brains is common sense.
The internet is losing it over a University of Utah study showing a century of hair samples revealing lead levels dropped about 100x after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) started tightening rules in the 1970s. The findings, published in PNAS (a top science journal), hit like a mic drop: our follicles kept receipts. Commenters cheered, sighed, and immediately got political. One user deadpanned “Explains a great deal,” while another highlighted the study’s warning that some lead rules were weakened under Trump—cue the regs vs. dereg cage match.
The vibe? “Environmental regulations are a win” meets “Why are we still arguing?” A crowd pivoted to the next fight: mercury in fish, with coal-burning called the no-brainer villain. Meanwhile, Utah’s quirky twist stole hearts: families literally saved locks of hair in scrapbooks, giving scientists a time-travel lab. One commenter reminisced about 1980s Los Angeles with stinging eyes—plus a pants-less bystander—turning the thread into a smoggy nostalgia tour.
Hot takes, memes, and mini-history lessons collided: hair as forensic truth, grandma as data hero, and the eternal internet question—do we really need more proof that rules protecting kids’ brains are good? The comments say: yes, and also please fix fish.
Key Points
- •Hair samples spanning about 100 years show lead levels were roughly 100 times higher before EPA regulations than after.
- •The study, conducted by University of Utah researchers and published in PNAS, links declines in human lead exposure to environmental regulations.
- •Researchers analyzed hair from 48 Utah individuals, including ancestral samples preserved in family scrapbooks.
- •Utah’s Wasatch Front historically had significant lead emissions from smelters in Midvale and Murray, many shuttered by the 1970s.
- •The article notes current weakening of lead-related regulations by the Trump administration and emphasizes the positive health impacts of past rules.